The Champions League Twenty20, first played in 2009, was supposed to be the competition that gave the Indian Premier League (IPL) brand a global platform.
For the cricket boards of India, Australia and South Africa, who divvied up the proceeds — the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had a 50 per cent share — it was also a cash cow.
For the broadcaster, it was a disaster. ESPN Star Sports shelled out $900 million (Dh3.3 billion) for 10 years of rights, and never managed to attract ratings comparable to the IPL. After six seasons of little more than lukewarm interest, the three boards and the broadcaster agreed to shelve the event.
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It left the BCCI with a small window in the calendar and a sizeable hole in the bank balance. Now, with the IPL broadcast deal with Sony coming to an end after next year’s IPL, the board’s mandarins have mooted the idea of an IPL overseas.
The UAE, which sold out pretty much every game when part of the IPL was played there in 2014, is one of the favourites to host the event, especially given the time-zone issues that Indian broadcasters would have if it was to be played in North America. But the BCCI is toying with the idea of rotating venues, and making IPL cricketers the sport’s equivalent of basketball’s Harlem Globetrotters.
“In the month of September, the BCCI is willing to host a mini IPL or IPL overseas,” said Anurag Thakur, the BCCI president, after the working committee meeting in Dharamsala last Friday [June 24]. “[It will be] a shorter format, not home-and-away matches, but a lesser number of matches. In a two-week window, we will be able to complete it.”
With suggestions that Pakistan cricket may no longer view the Emirates as its only home away from home, this news is bound to be of interest to millions of expatriates in the Middle East. More than 15 years after Indian cricket cut its ties with Sharjah, the boys may be back in town.
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