FORMER IPL commissioner Lalit Modi has questioned the current structure of the Indian Premier League (IPL), saying the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is losing revenue by not following the original format.
He said the league is missing out on ₹2,400 crore (£194.94 million) due to fewer matches under the existing system.
The IPL, which began in 2008 as a franchise-based T20 league, was designed with a full home-and-away format where each team plays the other twice. Modi, who founded the league and served as its first commissioner, said the structure has changed after the expansion to 10 teams in 2022, reducing the number of matches. The current format has 74 matches instead of a higher number under the original model.
He also said he was pleased with the league’s valuation after Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Rajasthan Royals were sold for a combined value of about ₹31,000 crore (£2.52 billion), but said the format needs to return to what was originally agreed, as he said in an interview to Sportstar.
Here are the five key quotes from his interview where he criticised the BCCI
- “For every game, the BCCI gets 50 per cent, and the remaining 50 per cent is distributed to teams. Consequently, teams are now losing out on 20 games. It is a contractual obligation, given the fees they are paying, to provide them with home-and-away fixtures,” he said.
- “The home-and-away format is where the value lies. If there is no space in the calendar, do not increase the number of teams. It is as simple as that. That is not what we sold. Has everybody signed off on this? I guarantee they have not,” he added.
- “Why are they not playing home and away? There are excuses, but it is a contractual obligation and a commercial transaction for the teams.”
- “If there were 94 matches today on a home-and-away basis at ₹118 crore (£9.60 million) per game, the media rights alone would be worth an extra ₹2,400 crore (£194.94 million). That is ₹2,400 crore (£194.94 million) in additional revenue for the BCCI,” he explained.
- “Of this, ₹1,200 crore (£97.47 million) would have gone to the 10 teams, ₹120 crore (£9.75 million) each, and team values would automatically have been higher,” Modi said.
Separately, Modi also spoke about the future of cricket formats in his interview to Sportstar. He said, “Test cricket should always stay; we should dump the ODIs and keep the T20s. Kerry Packer did a great job in reviving the one-dayers, and I salute him, but the time is over for ODIs. Test cricket should move to the day-night format. But I see absolutely no threat to the IPL from any other leagues.”
The debate around ODI cricket has been ongoing. Ravichandran Ashwin had earlier raised questions about the format’s future beyond the 2027 World Cup. India played 22 T20Is in five months ahead of the T20 World Cup 2026, while 18 ODIs are scheduled in the build-up to the 2027 ODI World Cup.
