A new innings for IPL: This premier cricket tournament needs to evolve

As the 18th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) gets underway, the commentary focuses on its dramatic transformational impact. There is no doubt that the tournament, now one of the world’s richest leagues, has revolutionised the sport, domestically and globally. It has, most importantly, widened the market for cricketing talent, enabling aspirants from smaller towns and a wider socio-economic background to consider cricket as a viable career. Institutionally, it has spawned offshoots from Australia, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, and South Africa to Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Caribbean. The skills and attacking play that the T20 format has brought to the game has transformed the hitherto languishing longer formats; more Test matches, for instance, ending in a result rather than a draw in recent years. As the valuation of the original eight teams of franchises (10 are competing in the 2025 edition) touches $2 billion and the broadcaster, JioStar, targets ₹6,000 crore in ad revenue through 32 major sponsorship deals, the IPL’s glittering success should prompt introspection from its owner, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), on the direction and future of the sport. 

As a “charitable organisation”, the riches that the BCCI earns from the IPL are tax-free so long as the money is used to further the objective of promoting cricket. In this context, it is worth considering an adjustment to the format. First, like the National Football League, on which it is modelled, the IPL is a closed league in which roughly the same set of teams competes each year without facing the cycle of relegation or promotion, which marks European football leagues. This translates into franchise valuations that are out of proportion with a team’s performance — three-time runners-up Royal Challengers Bengaluru being an example. Since there is clearly plenty of money sloshing around in T20 cricket, it could be useful for the BCCI to use some of it to create a second-tier franchise from, say, among state associations with the opportunity of promotion to a top-tier franchise. This would enhance the excitement and competitiveness of the tournament and spread the money around more equitably, further deepening the market for cricket. Since the IPL does not protect domestic cricketers from global competition, a second-tier tournament that links it into a promotion and relegation battle would do much to expose more aspiring Indian cricketers to top-flight international competition.

  Meanwhile, IPL franchise owners have now expanded their reach to teams in other international T20 leagues — from the US to West Asia and the Caribbean. Several IPL franchises own up to three foreign franchises. The upshot of this is that each franchise can offer lucrative contracts to star players to play in multiple T20 tournaments. The trend has caused disquiet among national cricket boards because it has meant that these players frequently give national teams short shrift. This trend is already visible in the West Indian team. The BCCI and the International Cricket Council would do well to impose some sort of restriction on ownership geographies. It would be a pity if the best cricketing traditions such as the Ashes or the Border-Gavaskar trophy were to lose traction to a format that places more premium on the less cerebral aspects of the sport.