In April 2008 Mr. Lalit modi announced a game of cricket which was
never before witnessed in the history of sports. A boy, who was rusticated from
his college with the allegation of drug abuse, masterminded this breathtaking
game plan in the form of “Indian Premier League”. He coined a concept of cricket
which is not only a competition but we can say a way to show the power of
money, glamour and authority. More we discuss this game, more the controversies
seem to infiltrate and more this form of the game seems less sports and more a
spice filled filthy entertainment. We were definitely quite aware of the
absence of certain decorousness and gentleness of this so called Gentleman’s
game right from the beginning.
Mr. Lalit Modi is ousted by BCCI, Sashi Tharoor (former minister
of state for external affairs) lost his job, Prfool Patel is also in trouble.
But no doubt IPL, born just three years ago is today's 2nd highest money making
event in the world after the NBA. Quite surprisingly this fact holds true in a
country where 80% of people earning only $ 2 USD per day. The fact that close
to 1 Cr is spent on each night’s party of Indian Premier League is definitely a
shock to most ordinary Indians. It’s rather shameful in a country where farmers
are dying because of hunger. However in the same country it is also true that
the self claimed fans are busy cheering albeit with the pricey cheerleaders
imported from various corners of the world just to add further spice to the
already tacky entertainment. Where is gentleness of those gentlemen who claim
to play a gentle game?
In 2008 when IPL teams were announced nobody could foresee that
the formula which was coined my Lalit Modi is going to hit such a large scale.
In 2008
Shahrukh khan’s team was the only team which made a profit;
otherwise all teams were loss making. But the second and the third grew so
enormously that at last the man who created the trap has trapped himself.
Right now in IPL there is 8 teams which worth of core of INR.
Bidding value is riding higher every year. But this year investors fell in the
trap only to realize- all that glitters is not gold.
Let’s see, if there is any difference between price and value of
IPL teams, or it’s just an inflated ego and pride which drives the investor to
buy a stake in IPL team. If we look at the price which investors are paying and
value which they are getting there is a huge gap. The most interesting thing in
this game model is the “money” which is coming from the different resource. The
money is directly debited to the bank account of the teams. Only some part of
total income goes to the IPLmanagement.
If we analyze closely, there are 8 teams each priced between $90
million to $150million. In 2008 Vijay Malaya paid $111million mean nearly Rs.
500 crore same is paid by Mr. Ambani for Mumbai Indians If we calculate then
every IPL team have some common source of income like ticket commission, TV
rights, internet rights (90,000visits per day on YouTube), extra income like
sponsorships, merchandise etc. The total some of these entire income resources
is not more than 150 crore whereas franchise fee is hooping amount of 36crore
/annum player fee and other so called extra expenses make a big chunk of cost
structure.
The recent bid for a Pune team amount rose to Rs. 1665 crore. To
achieve even break even Pune team will take minimum 7 years!
