Fifteen years on, the popularity of Indian Premier League (IPL) has only grown by leaps and bounds since its inception in 2008. The entire cricketing world's eyes get glued to the quintessential league which brings a whole lot of extravaganza and high voltage cricket drama in the two months affair.
Gripped by the opulence of the IPL, former England skipper Andrew Strauss said that India's money rich cricketing league has the potential to go beyond National Football League (NFL) to become the biggest domestic sporting event in the world by 2040. The legendary English batter also reckoned that the initiative of Women's Premier League (WPL) would ‘significantly accelerate’ the growth of the female game.
If we analyse the per-game cost (including both TV and digital) of the big sporting leagues, the NFL stands first. A game of NFL costs a broadcaster about $17 million, which is the highest for any sports league in the world at the moment. The IPL is now second with $13.4 million. IPL is followed by the English Premier League ($11 million), and the Major League Baseball figure is almost the same as well. BCCI Secretary Jay Shah had earlier told The Indian Express that in the last five-year cycle, they earned $9 million from one IPL game.
"As the Indian economy grows, it is expected that by the time it reaches parity with the size of the USA in 2040, the value of the IPL is likely to be six times what it is today - this is going to be the biggest domestic sporting tournament in the world, bar none," Strauss said while giving the Cowdrey lecture at Lord's.
"If you allow yourself to keep bound up in the thesis that the purpose of the game is to bring diverse people together, whether playing or watching and to allow cricket to educate and connect, then surely the rise of franchise cricket is one of the great steps forward. More players are playing in different parts of the world, experiencing new places and meeting new people, more and more people around the globe are engaged with the great game that we all love so much," he added.
Just like every year, this time around in the IPL 2023 auction franchises were seem breaking banks to rope in their favourite players. The Punjab Kings splurged big bucks on the English all-rounder Sam Curran, who became the most expensive player in the history of the IPL during the 2023 mini-auction.
The Shikhar Dhawan-led side shelled out INR 18.5 crore for Curran, who had a base reserve price of Rs 2 crore. Curran’s selling price surpassed the record set by Rajasthan Royals when the side had bid INR 16.25 crore for South Africa all-rounder Chris Morris ahead of the 2021 season.
On the establishment of upcoming Women's IPL which will be played in the month of March just before the Men's IPL, Strauss said," The first IPL franchises have just been sold for an earth-shattering sum of £465 million ($572.5 million). Women's cricket is truly standing on its own two feet and is likely to be in the top three sports for earning potential for any young girl with talent and an ambition to play sport professionally."
