SLC confident of LPL success despite challenges

by Rex Clementine

Sri Lanka Cricket is in for a major financial windfall with Lanka Premier League tournament getting the go ahead from health authorities after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic delayed the event several times.

SLC will earn a total sum of US$ 10 million over a period of five years having outsourced the event to a Dubai based company – IPG.

The organizers announced that the franchise based tournament will now take place from the 27th of November to the 17th of December. However, there are still question marks about the competition.

With discussions with health authorities getting delayed, the IPG Group that has bought the rights has requested SLC for more time for the signing of the agreement. SLC has agreed for this and the board is expected to get a bank guarantee from the organizers which can be encashed on the day the tournament gets underway.

While IPG has come up with a lucrative deal that will benefit SLC there are questions about how they are going to make money.

Each franchise was initially priced at US$ one million but lack of interest saw that amount coming down to about US$ 500,000. The franchises will end up incurring further costs as they have got to pay players and look after other logistics.

While franchises earn money through sponsorships for their teams, the major portion of the revenue comes from the event itself. As per the agreement, the organizers will pay 40 percent of the television revenue to the franchises which means each franchise will receive eight percent of that money. The same module applies for the title sponsorship as well. But so far there has been no announcement made about the television deal or the main sponsor. There is speculation that Sony has bought the television rights and a gaming app will be the title sponsor. However, how much those deals are worth has not been revealed yet to get a clear idea as to whether the franchises will make money.

How much money the television companies will pay depends on the big players the organizers are able to attract for the event. The names such as Chris Gayle, Wahab Riaz, Ifran Pathan and Liam Plunkett have been thrown around and in a week’s time or so we will have a clear idea about the participants.

It is also believed that out of the five franchises, one is yet to be sold – Dambulla franchise captained by Dasun Shanaka.

This is the closest that we have come in conducting a franchise based tournament of our own since the Sri Lanka Premier League conducted a decade ago collapsed. There are several ifs and buts but observers are confident that the tournament will take place. Will it continue next year – for which to happen franchises need to make money – is something not known.

The entire tournament is slotted to take place at Hambantota with the players and production crew getting into a bio-secure bubble. There has been a concession on quarantine days with players expected to spend just seven days in isolation.