Less than a week after Mumbai Mirror reported the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) decision to cut the play-off prize money in the Indian Premier League (IPL) by 50%, the owners of all eight franchises have shot off a letter to the IPL governing council chairman Brijesh Patel, saying the pay cut will lead to “significant and unexpected financial complications”.

The letter, sent to Patel on Friday, is signed by Shah Rukh Khan (Kolkata Knight Riders), Preity Zinta (Kings XI Punjab), Nikhil Meswani (Mumbai Indians), Parth Jindal (Delhi Capitals), Kaviya Maran (Sunrisers Hyderabad), Sanjeev Churiwala (Royal Challengers Bangalore), KS Viswanathan (Chennai Super Kings) and Ranjit Barthakur (Rajasthan Royals).

The BCCI, citing the economic slowdown, had sent an email to the franchises last week saying the four teams that will qualify for the playoffs this season will share Rs 25 crore instead of Rs 50 crore (‘IPL halves play-off money to Rs 25 cr; franchises upset’, MM, March 4).

Giving the break-up of the pay cut, the BCCI mail said that the winner of the IPL 2020 will get get Rs 10 crore, the runner-up team will get Rs 6.25 crore, and the third and the fourth-placed teams will be handed Rs 4.37 crore each. In 2019, the winner got Rs 20 crore, the runner-up Rs 12.5 crore, while the third and fourth team was handed Rs 8.75 crore each.

The letter sent by the franchise owners said the changes were communicated to them with less than four weeks to go for the IPL to begin. “It is too late for us to recalibrate our financial models and the proposed changes will cause significant and unexpected financial complications,” the letter, a copy of which is available with this newspaper, said.

All but admitting that it was the money that drove a tournament like IPL, the team owners said, “The play-off standing fee continues to be a strong incentive for teams to continually improve the performance which, we all believe, has benefited Indian cricket in no small measure. We collectively believe rewinding that will be a step backwards in the progress of the IPL.”

The franchise owners have also objected to the BCCI’s decision of imposing an additional Rs 20 lakh as hosting fee. All these years, the franchises were paying Rs 30 lakh per game, but they are now asked to pay Rs 50 lakh per match to the centre hosting the game.

No BCCI official was available for a comment. IPL chairman Patel did not respond to calls or messages, but sources in the BCCI said the franchises were earning more than Rs 200 crore from the Central revenue and there was no need for an “astronomical play-off prize money”. 

(Courtesy: Mumbai Mirror)