BCCI or the Board of Control for Cricket in India was established on 4th December 1928; and since then, it has been the national governing body for cricket in India. The BCCI was set up by a group of players at Roshanara Club of Delhi, in order to end the monopoly of the British in Cricket.
Since it was established, the BCCI has been the richest governing body of cricket worldwide, and also it has been one of the integral parts of the Big Three of international cricket, accompanied by Cricket Australia and the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Today, this cricket board has about 30 full-time members, and its valuation is 3,308 crore INR. It’s headquartered is located at Cricket Centre, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
How BCCI contributes to the Indian economy
According to the survey of KPMG Sports Advisory Group appointed by the BCCI, it was found that in 2015 the Indian Premier League (IPL) had contributed around 11.5 billion INR to India’s GDP, as stated by BCCI. This KPMG Sports Advisory Group was appointed in order to analyze the economic impact of IPL on the economy of India, and this highlighted the figures mentioned above.
Taxes and sponsorships of BCCI
Being one of the World’s richest cricket associations, BCCI's valuation has been estimated to be around 18,000 crore INR as per media reports. And BCCI is expected to earn revenue of over 1000 crores from the revenue of the 15th season of the IPL, as stated by the latest reports.
The BCCI has been registered as a charitable organization and has its income exempted from taxes. This has been subjected to the fulfillment of conditions that were imposed under the Income Tax Act, of 1961.
This taxation issue of BCCI was upheld by the tax department, but later it has been exempted from taxes. This particular issue was challenged before the Mumbai bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), and the order passed on November 2021 [ITA No. 3301/Mum/2019] was in favor of BCCI. However, even the ITAT declared its decisions to be vague when the Tribunal examined it and the grant is only related to the registration of BCCI, whereas it was not examined as an issue of taxability of IPL income.
How BCCI pays their players?
According to the latest salary revisions of BCCI, the Ranji trophy players who have successfully played for more than 40 matches, are promised to be paid 60,000 INR per day, while those who have played for about 21-40 matches, will be paid 50,000 INR. Players with experience less than the mentioned will be registered for remunerations of 40,000 INR per day. However, there are some changes proposed for this method of salary to the players, which is much awaited.
For the past five years, the senior domestic cricketers were paid a sum of 1, 40,000 INR from a four-day Ranji Trophy match as active players. Whereas this amount gets reduced to half if he's on the bench. A committee led by Vinod Rai brought forward this structure, and players were supposed to receive a hike of 250% from the previous match-fees model, which was active for 10 years (2007-2017).
However, the current model was designed to be an equitable force where the players with caps with more than 40 to their names, were benefitted with a hike of 71%, and players with less than 20 games, achieved just a 14.28% rise. Once a player was able to bag 20 caps, they will be benefitted from 50,000 INR per day before getting promoted to the next bracket.
Apart from the senior men’s cricketers, the women’s and age-groups cricketers are also granted a pay hike, which is mentioned as follows. For every domestic one-day game, the senior women’s players are paid 20,000 INR per match, instead of the 12,500 INR which was paid earlier.
The overall income of a domestic woman’s crickets in a year is somewhat similar to the men’s first-class cricketers, even though there exists no first-class women’s competition in India. But there arise complexities and questions about the BCCI’s intentions of promoting women’s cricket in India. Well, the answer is yet to be discovered.
Whereas, the men’s under-23 players have been recently paid an amount of 25,000 INR per day, which rose from the 17,500 paid earlier. While the under-19 players who have played for the XIs will be receiving an amount of 20,000 INR per day. The youngest players in the segment, i.e. the under-16 are set to receive 7000 INR per day. This particular structure is applicable only to the player who plays in the XIs, with the reserve player being paid around 50% of match fees. For women’s age groups category, the under-23s, under-19s, and 16s, will remain the same. All the players in the motioned categories will receive 10,000 INR per day; with reserved earnings of 5000 INR.
Men's Under-23 players will now earn 25,000 rupees per day from 17,500 earlier while Under-19s in the playing XIs will get 20,000 rupees per day. The youngest members in the system - the under-16 players - are set to receive 7000 rupees per day. This structure is applicable only for players in the playing XIs, with the reserve players receiving the 50% of match fees. For the women’s age-group category, Under-23s, Under-19s, and Under-16s will be the same. All of these players will get 10,000 rupees per day, with the reserves earning 5000 rupees.
How it makes money?
Clearly, BCCI has many income streams, which are mentioned below:
1. Media Rights
Approximately, 1.6 billion viewers watched the 2019 Indian Men’s World Cup. This highlighted a 50 times greater viewer’s history than any of the subscriptions. In 2008, Sony Networks and World Sports Network together worked on a deal worth 8200 crores INR, to gin the viewership rights of IPL alone. Moving to 2021, the BCCI sold the entire telecast rights of IPL to Star Sports for a magnificent amount of 2.5 billion dollars, which had to strike a five-year deal for 2018-2022.
2. Title Sponsorships:
Many companies always hunt for greater exposure to the audience. These companies try their best to utilize every possible opportunity to achieve the same. Thus, title sponsors are one of the methods companies will be able to increase their brand awareness by receiving more screen space via logos, advertisement spaces, and others.
3. Team Sponsorship
BCCI consists of many companies that hunt to claim the spot for the team. Within these companies, one will be able to achieve the position of the official team sponsor. For a long time, Sahara India Pvt. Ltd. Had been in the position of India’s official team sponsor. But later, the opportunity was passed to Star Sports and then to OPPO. Following the sequence, Byju took over the official team sponsor of India, which had paid around 1,079 crores INR and sealed the deal on marc 31s, 2022.
4. Series with Other Nations
The ICC conducts many international cricket matches, and the revenue generated from this is huge magnificently huge. In early times, the countries used to receive an equal distribution of the revenue generated, but later under the new plan, the big three inclusive of BCCI takes a major portion of the revenue.
5. Kit Sponsors
Earlier, Nike used to sponsor the kits for matches, which generated BCCI an amount of 12.13 million USD on yearly basis. But soon the brand ended, which made the contract end, leading to a search for new possible sources for BCI. However, the MPL grabbed the opportunity to be India’s official kit sponsor. Also, the BCCI shook hands with many other brands such as Hyundai and Ambuja Cement to be their sponsors. This added another 270 crores (approx.), that BCCI generates from these sponsors.
6. Indian Premier League (IPL)
IPL is full of money, glamour, and aggression to cricket, which works as a money-minting crickertainment for the BCCI. Ranging from tickets to media rights, IPL is an amalgamation of whole new components. The total earnings are shared among the franchise, where BCCI also receives a share. Around 50% of the share is given to the franchises, and BCCI keeps the rest. Also, the franchises lo have to provide BCCI with 20% of their total revenue at the end of the series. Thus, BCCI grabs 60% of the central pool revenue. Moreover, 400 billion views are observed in IPL, where Star Sports takes the major broadcast rights. Moreover, the title sponsors pay above 2100 crores INR to grab a spot. Ads also tend to play a major role in the share of the revenue which is derived by IPL.
Recent controversies of BCCI
The BCCI has been led by 37 leaders as presidents or interim presidents, since its existence in 1928. In these 90 years of existence, BCCI has grown from a struggling body to a surviving one in order to become a financially stable body or the richest cricket board in the world which controls more than 50% of worldwide revenues. During its existence, it has been able to become what is known today, because of the collective efforts of people like Inderjit Singh Bindra, Jagmohan Dalmiya, NKP Salve, Sharad Pawar, and N Srinivasan. Their tenure has not only proven to be helpful for the growth of cricket to become the No.1 sport nationwide but had also helped the BCCI to become the most powerful cricket organization globally.
Moreover, these periods were also highlighted to be controversial as they required some necessary re-alignments as they remained as a power center for many years, thereby becoming the head member of the ICC before the downfall.
