Revealed: The Whopping Amount BCCI Paid Emirates Cricket Board For Staging IPL 2020 In UAE

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has reportedly paid Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) a huge amount for staging the thirteenth edition of the Indian Premier League in the UAE. IPL 2020 came to an end last week with Mumbai Indians beating Delhi Capitals in the final.

Not very long ago, there were huge doubts over the fate of the tournament this year due to the pandemic. IPL 2020 was originally scheduled to be held in March-May. However, the BCCI had to postpone the tournament in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The nationwide lockdown was gradually lifted but the possibility of seeing IPL 2020 taking place looked bleak as the cases increased at an alarming rate in India. But the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) and the UAE government came to BCCI’s rescue in the end and the IPL was successfully held in the gulf country.

The teams had gone to UAE almost a month before the start of IPL 2020 and trained there without any difficulty. Strict bio-bubbles were created to ensure that the players, staff and others remain safe. In the end, not a single individual was tested positive for COVID-19 after the tournament started on September 19.

The amount paid by BCCI:

The BCCI has paid ECB a big amount for the successful staging of the tournament. According to Bangalore Mirror, the BCCI paid its UAE counterpart INR 100 crore for IPL 2020. The report stated that the Indian cricket board paid a whopping 14 million dollars to stage the tournament in Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi.

The amount, however, sounded credible considering the staging associations in India would have earned Rs 60 crore for the 60 games. As per the new rules, the state association would receive Rs 1 crore for hosting one IPL game. The BCCI recently increased the hosting fee for a franchise for each match from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 lakh.

Since the BCCI needs to match the amount paid by the franchises, the state association eventually pockets Rs 1 crore per game. Meanwhile, IPL 2020 also saw UAE’s hospitality sector enjoying a windfall. The IPL immensely added to the UAE business, with 14 five-star hotels almost packed for three months.

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