Franchisees paid the price for IPL row

The Lalit Modi - BCCI confrontation has affected the day to day running of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

It has also had an adverse impact on the preparation for the 2011 edition of the Twenty20 tournament.

The controversy has also caused long delays in making mandatory payments to the various IPL franchisees pertaining to this year’s tournament which was held in April - May.

While the BCCI has made some payment to the franchisees this month, monies under other heads remain to be paid.

“This month each of the eight franchisees received Rs. 14 crore, which is actually the advance money to run the teams under heads,” said a BCCI source. “ As is the normal practice, we cut 10 per cent tax at source on this amount and the actual money that the franchisees received was around Rs. 12.60 crore.” There is more money left to be distributed among the team owners.

“The money due to the franchisees includes the share from the income generated through television rights and money from the IPL central partners, like VijayMallya’s Kingfisher.

These are significant figures as the BCCI distributes 80 per cent of the revenue from its central partners while five per cent is given to the IPL and 15 per cent goes to the board,” explained an official.

The loss that franchisees have suffered due to the delay in payment is irreparable and the team owners cannot even claim it from the BCCI. “According to an estimate, each franchisee has lost Rs. 45 lakh, which it could have earned thorough bank interest had the board paid all the money on time. When added, it’s a cumulative loss of Rs, 3.6 crore of interest money for all franchisees,” the official pointed out.