IPL 2023: Richer yes, but is the cricket getting any better?

It’s that time of the year again. When Gujarat Lions, the surprise champions on debut last year, take on the much decorated Chennai Super Kings to set the ball rolling for the 16^th edition of IPL next Friday (March 31), the match will be valued at a staggering $ 13.7 million. A figure, which is only below the per match valuation of NFL ($ 15.2m) – the richest franchise league of the world – and marginally higher than English Premier League.

 Yes, this is no mere jugglery of figures – for the IPL had always been about megabucks. It may have changed the landscape of the game as we knew it since it’s arrival in 2008, but at the end of the day, IPL had been a marketeer’s dream – defying all logic with each cycle of media rights sale, an event for which corporates now wait to coincide it’s launch, be it a credit card company to a car manufacturing leader. The cricketers, of course, get richer in the bargain and rags-to-riches stories are created one after the other.

 The three-day e-auction of media rights in June last year for the 2023-27 cycle, which was sold at a staggering $ 6.2 million, surprised even some of the team owners. Just to jog one’s memory a bit – the Mukesh Ambani-owned Viacom18 swept two of the packages by pledging $ 3.05 billion (Rs 237,580 million) : digital rights (package B) and non-exclusive rights of selected matches for the sub-continent (package C) while they also claimed a bigger chunk of global TV rights (package D), comprising of prime zones UK, Australia, US, South Africa and MENA region.

 Disney Star, meanwhile, held on to the TV rights for the Indian sub-continent (package A) with a bid of another $ 3.05 bn (Rs 237.750m) while Times Internet emerged as the third player to acquire rights for the remaining regions of global TV rights.

Simply put, the deal is going to fetch the IPL three times more than the $ 2.4 billion composite deal for TV and digital rights which the BCCI signed with Star for the 2017-22 cycle. The renewal of media rights has certainly played a key part in the overall valuation of the league, which has been pegged at $ 8.4 billion at end-2022 by Brand Finance, one of the leading brand valuation consultants. A figure, which has nearly doubled from $ 4.7 bn in a space of two years in 2021.

 Simply put, the deal is going to fetch the IPL three times more than the $ 2.4 billion composite deal for TV and digital rights which the BCCI signed with Star for the 2017-22 cycle. The renewal of media rights has certainly played a key part in the overall valuation of the league, which has been pegged at $ 8.4 billion at end-2022 by Brand Finance, one of the leading brand valuation consultants. A figure, which has nearly doubled from $ 4.7 bn in a space of two years in 2021.

 There is no doubt that the IPL, which got bigger again since last year, has also just got richer – but is the cricket necessarily getting any better? Let’s face it, the star value per team has been steadily dwindling with the phasing out of some of the classy performers over the years. The concept of ‘icon’ cricketers have been done away with once the generation of the Fab Four, Virender Sehwag or Yuvraj Singh walked into sunset – followed by the likes of Universe Boss Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn and their ilk.

 There are very few of the ‘Old Firm’ left with Mahendra Singh Dhoni being last of the Mohicans – bracing up for his last season with the Whistle Podu Army at home. Look beyond Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and K.L. Rahul or Hardik Pandya – and one will be scrambling to find suitable Indian internationals to lead some of the franchises. The talent pool is also now stretched thin with 10 teams in the fray and one cannot possibly live in denial about the thinning star-power.  

 The buzz about the overseas professionals, barring the likes of members of the England team – the reigning T20 World Cup champions and a handful of West Indians – while some of the other stalwarts like David Warner is aging. One cannot help but think that if the doors were thrown open for Pakistan players (which was shut after the Mumbai terror attack), an unrealistic proposal under the circumstances, it could have certainly brought in a welcome variety.

 Imagine the likes of a Babar Azam, Mohammed Rizwan, new T20 captain Shadab Khan and speed merchant Shaheen Afridi being a part of the bandwagon. The first two seasons had seen the likes of Shahid Afridi (for the now defunct Deccan Chargers), Shoaib Akhtar (Kolkata Knight Riders) revelling in the competition while Wasim Akram, Azhar Mahmood were part of support staff in not so distant past.

 Wishful thinking? Yes, but there is a growing feeling that the IPL can do with some re-inventing of the wheel beyond the cosmetic rule changes!