India Premier League (IPL) is deemed as world's most popular cricket league which has a massive fan base across the globe. Every cricketer aspires to play in this cricket carnival which has just concluded its 15th season where the debutants Gujarat Titans won the coveted IPL title.
BCCI President Sourav Ganguly is delighted to see the progress of the tournament which is growing by leaps and bounds year after year and feels that IPL generates more revenue than English Premier League (EPL).
"I've seen the game evolve, where players like me earned a few hundreds and now have the potential of earning crores. This game is run by the fans, by the people of this country, and by the BCCI, which was formed by cricket fans. This sport is strong and will continue to evolve. The IPL generates more revenue than the English Premier League. It makes me feel happy and proud that the sport I love has evolved to become so strong," said Ganguly at India Leadership Council Event while speaking to Deepak Lamba, CEO, Worldwide Media, President, Times Strategic Solutions Limited.
Even in the face of pandemic IPL never ceased to disappoint its fans. This year, the tournament was a 10-team event, with Gujarat Titans (GT) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) added to the mix. The number of matches were also increased to 74. The board is planning to increase the number of matches to 94 for the coming seasons.
During the event, Ganguly was also asked about his leadership style. Speaking on the same, he said: "Captaincy, to me, is leading a team on the ground, and leadership, to me, is building a team. So, whether I worked with Sachin, Azhar, or Dravid, I didn't compete with them; instead, I collaborated with them as leaders and shared responsibility."
When asked about the similarities of leading a cricket team and running BCCI, Ganguly said, “I believe that the common thing is managing individuals. This country has exceptional talent, ranging from young players to young corporate employee. I genuinely believed that if I wanted to be the captain of a successful team, I had to respect my colleagues so that they could become good players, and that it’s never the other way around; you can’t keep everything to yourself and expect good things to happen; it won’t happen.”
IPL vs EPL
For the 2018-19 season, Nielson research reported that around 3.2 billion people watched the EPL. This was a 6% increase in figures for the 2017-18 season.
While these figures are considered to be accurate, they only include people watching games at home. So, the actual viewing figure should be assumed to be considerably higher given that many people choose to watch EPL games in bars or on a mobile device.
By comparison, the 2021 IPL attracted a viewership of around 380 million. While this figure is considerably less than the number of EPL viewers, it’s important to remember that the IPL takes place over a shorter time period and fewer games so there are less opportunities to watch.
