The BCCI has announced the media rights deal for the IPL.
The deal is for rupees 16,347 crore, about $2.55b or £1.96b for 5 years.
At £0.4b per year the deal is worth roughly double the amount the ECB will get for all its UK media rights both international and domestic. The deal also dwarfs the BCCI's deal for international matches of just £0.45b for 6 years although that is up for renewal in 2018.
It will be interesting to see if the media rights deal for Indian international matches gets anywhere near the IPL figures. The ICC's total revenue for an eight year cycle are quoted as £1.9b.
Clearly the IPL is the biggest beast in the cricketing jungle and there must be doubts over the continued relevance of international cricket in general and test cricket in particular. This is worrying for cricketing supporters who (like me) see test cricket as a better game, both as a spectacle and morally, than the shorter forms.
But there needs to be some caution here. Although the IPL is the biggest beast it's not totally dominant. ICC revenues for global events are broadly comparable and ECB rights (still principally sustained by the British cricketin public's affection for test cricket) are smaller but scarcely negligible.
Where this all ends up remains, in my opinion, uncertain.
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