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Former Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi recently suggested demolishing the cricket stadiums in India and building new ones with world-class infrastructures and facilities. He criticised the BCCI that even after India’s apex cricket council earned a hefty amount of money in recent years, it has not put it into proper use and has a lot of room for improvement.
Lalit gave an example of Feroz Shah Kotla, which was recently renamed the Arun Jaitley stadium. Among the premier grounds across many countries, the Kotla still lacks many facilities and a good infrastructure. Lalit told NDTV that the Kotla should be demolished given their recent monetary fortunes.
“In 15 years the IPL has contributed a hundred thousand crores to the BCCI in total. 58,000 in the last year alone. 50% of that money has been made for the BCCI, and 50% is shared by the IPL franchise, as an example. What has BCCI done to encourage infrastructure?,” Lalit asked.
Recently, the IPL media rights were sold for a humongous sum of Rs. 48,390 crores over a five-year period starting from 2023. This made sure that BCCI will get a minimum of Rs. 107.5 crores per match which is a very huge amount of money. “You look at Kotla. They should demolish Kotla. They should demolish most of the stadiums and build fresh.
"You can put world-class infrastructure- air conditioning, good toilets, good hygienic eating places, good viewer experience, better seats, getting in and out of the stadium, car parks. You can go underground, you can build big, but you need to put that money in and build world-class stadiums. 80% of the money that goes to the BCCI is passed out to the state association. BCCI should mandate this. and this is not what is happening,” he further added.
Lalit was the mastermind behind the introduction of the IPL back in 2008. Many have attributed the recent successes of the IPL to Lalit, although the end of his tenure in the BCCI was nothing less than controversial. After the 2010 IPL, Lalit was suspended from BCCI when accusations of misconduct, indiscipline, and financial irregularities came up against him. BCCI set up a committee for investigation which found him guilty. He was banned for life in 2013.
