IPL generate more revenue than English Premier League: Sourav Ganguly: One of the most lucrative sporting event in the world, the Indian Premier League (IPL) remains always in the news for its growing popularity with each passing year. The extent of the popularity is such that all the cricketers across the world now aspire to feature in the Indian T20 tournament, at least, once in their career.
Furthermore, the growing revenue of the tournament has now prompted the experts and viewers to compare the league with other global tournaments.
Sourav Ganguly, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President, has recently compared the IPL with the famous football tournament English Premier League. The Indian cricket board president asserted that the IPL generates more revenue than the EPL.
“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.
“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.”
Notably, the statement of the former Indian skipper has come at a very interesting time when the IPL is hosting its media right bidding for the next five-year cycle. As per the sources who have their ear close to the IPL media rights, the bidding for TV and digital rights has reached Rs 43,000 Crores, which is an increase of over 2.5 times during day 1.
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For the broadcasting rights of the IPL 2023-27, Disney Star, Sony Pictures Networks India and Viacom18 are in a tight contest for the Indian subcontinent region. While for the Digital Rights, Zee is battling with Disney+Hotstar and Reliance Jio.
Meanwhile, when asked about handling the captaincy during his time, Sourav Ganguly replied: “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 what’s common things in managing the players as a captain of the side and running the BCCI successfully, 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.”
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