Indian Premier League (IPL) might be the richest T20 league and the most popular among other tournaments in the world. However, it is riddled with multiple issues and this has been exposed via a survey by the World Cricketers’ Association. The survey has considered various parameters and has ranked different T20 leagues across the globe, including PSL, SA20, BBL among others, accordingly. As per the survey, IPL has a lot of areas where there is scope to improve.
Where can IPL improve?
As per the recent WCA rankings, IPL has been ranked third overall among other T20 leagues, with 62.6 overall rating points. While the scores for average player payment, payment reliability and player/agent rating are in the green zone, the rest of the criteria remain areas of concerns. For starters, the minimum players payment has a score of just 1.1 out of 5, indicating that minimum player payments per week are below 33.3% of highest player payment league.
Next, in terms of security review, the league has a score of 1 as opposed to the maximum of 5, where the player security overlay has not been provided for independent analysis. It is pertinent to note that every team is given a certain amount of protection from the state police force during the IPL, while it is pertinent to point out that it varies from state to state and depending on the player’s popularity.
Right to Organise, Dispute Resolution, Unilateral Clauses, Other Restrictions, % of share of revenue and Commercial Rights are other areas where the league has fared poorly in the survey, indicating that there is a huge scope for improvement. When we talk about restrictions, there are two things that one needs to understand. First, the BCCI does not allow any Indian player (unless retired) to take part in any other T20 leagues. Second, there have been reasonable restrictions imposed on players from Pakistan and some from Bangladesh to take part in the IPL owing to geopolitical tensions with the countries.
Several of the issues flagged, such as % share of revenue, commercial rights, and dispute resolution are directly linked to the IPL Governing Council which comes under the ambit of the BCCI. Hence, the board has the final say in the matter and flexes a lot of influence as well. As for the positives, the average player payment, payment reliability and player/agent rating is top-notch, indicating that these sectors are doing completely fine in the IPL.
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