BCCI to approach Home Ministry to allow IPL in India from first week of May; no decision on foreign venue yet

NEW DELHI: Officials of the Indian cricket board have decided to approach the Union Home Ministry on Thursday for permission to allow the Indian Premier League to be held in India from the first week of May by when seven of the nine phases of elections will be over, said a senior BCCI official.

This would ensure that 60-70% of the domestic 20-20 cricket league will be held in the country, trimming down losses for the board as well as IPL franchises.

The home ministry had earlier said that the government will not be able to provide security to IPL matches during the elections, after which the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had decided to hold the first half of the tournament outside the country, either in South Africa, UAE or Bangladesh.

The decision to approach the home ministry was taken at a BCCI meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday which was attended by BCCI bigwigs N Srinivasan, Rajeev Shukla, Sanjay Patel, Ranjib Biswal and Sundar Raman. BCCI, however, could not finalise the foreign venue for the IPL where the first part of the tournament is to be held.

“Today, we discussed about foreign venues but we haven’t decided yet as we need couple of days more to finalise the offshore venue,” IPL chairman Rajib Biswal told reporters after the meeting.

The senior BCCI official, who has been quoted above, said South Africa as a venue has been ruled out and UAE is most likely going to host the first part of the tournament.

The Election Commission on Wednesday announced dates for the 16th Lok Sabha elections that will be held in nine phases between April 7 and May 12. Counting of votes for the elections that will see over 81 crore voters cast their ballot will be held on May 16.

IPL’s season 7 window is between April 9 and June 3.

The senior BCCI official said a bulk of the elections would be over by April 30, when the seventh phase of the elections will be completed.

If move than half of the IPL matches are moved to an overseas location, it would mean a loss of 40-50% in revenues for IPL teams as a considerable chunk of their revenues come from ticket sales on their home grounds. Even sponsorship and merchandising opportunities will get impacted due to the move.

Moving half of the tournament outside will also impact government revenues from the tournament. According to an economic impact survey conducted by US-based marketing research and analysis firm Sports Economics for the Delhi Daredevils, the six games Delhi played on its home ground in 2013 generated around Rs 96 crore for the Delhi government in direct and indirect taxes. This year, if the tournament happens in India, each team will play seven matches at their home grounds. If half of the matches go out, the 8 states from where the teams belong could lose revenues of up to Rs 50 crore each.