India’s cricket board banked nearly $300 million from last year’s iteration of its Indian Premier League, newly published financial documents have revealed.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is one of the richest governing bodies in global sport, owing largely to the runaway success of the flagship Twenty20 tournament.
The IPL has made millionaires of its top players and generated billions from media rights since its inception in 2008, spawning numerous copycat leagues in other cricket-loving countries in the years since.
Annual reports for the five years to 2021-22, published on the BCCI website Thursday, showed the board had amassed a surplus of 320 billion rupees ($2.7 billion) as of April 2022.
That year’s edition of the IPL saw a net income of $292 million from revenues of $771 million and expenses of $479 million, according to audited account figures.
The BCCI has avoided publishing detailed finances in the past.
Before Thursday, the board had not made detailed accounts public since 2017.
Former BCCI anti-corruption adviser Neeraj Kumar, who this year published a tell-all book about the board, criticised its secrecy on finances during an interview with Australian media in June.
“It’s a matter of great pity that we are so rich and so much money is distributed to our states and never accounted for,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
The BCCI auctioned broadcast and digital streaming rights for the 2023-27 IPL tournaments for an eye-popping $6.2 billion last year, with US giants Disney and Viacom among the successful bidders.
That figure is more nearly two-and-a-half times the value of its previous five-year media rights deal.
This year, the BCCI staged its inaugural women’s edition of the T20 tournament, earning nearly $700 million in combined franchise and media rights.
