BCCI and IPL franchises are incurring a loss of around Rs 2400 crore every year, Lalit Modi revealed

New Delhi. Former commissioner Lalit Modi, who started the Indian Premier League in collaboration with BCCI, has made a big claim. He says that BCCI and IPL franchises are incurring a loss of around Rs 2,400 crore every season. Despite the addition of two new teams, the number of matches has been limited to 74 due to changes in the home-and-away format. If the full home-and-away format is implemented, with each team playing every other team twice in the league stage, the total number of matches will be 94.

Lalit Modi said that this model has not been implemented due to scheduling problems. He says that because of this decision IPL teams are not able to achieve their full value. Modi told Sportstar, “For every match, BCCI gets 50 per cent. The remaining 50 per cent is distributed among the teams. Now the teams are suffering the loss of 20 matches. According to the fees they are paying, it is a condition of the contract to give them home and away matches.”

He added: “The real value is in home and away. If you don’t have the time in your calendar, don’t increase the number of teams. It’s that simple. That’s not what we sold. Has everyone agreed to this? I guarantee you, no.”

He also explained that due to not fully implementing the home-and-away format, each IPL franchise is losing earnings of around Rs 120 crore per season.

“If 94 matches were played today, we would earn Rs 118 crore per match on home and away basis. In such a situation, after all the matches are over, only Rs 2,400 crore would be earned from media rights. This extra Rs 2,400 crore would have gone to BCCI,” he claimed. “Out of this, 10 teams would have received Rs 1,200 crore, each team would have received Rs 120 crore and the value of the team would have automatically increased.”

Modi believes that IPL has no threat from any other league. He also said that ODI cricket is no longer relevant and the cricket world should move on. “Test cricket should always be there; we should give up ODI and keep T20. Kerry Packer did a great job in reviving ODI, I salute him, but now the time of ODI is over. Test cricket should be moved to day-night format. But I don’t think IPL is under any threat from any other league.”