#9. How India & BCCI Took Over the World of Cricket

Once upon a time, BCCI had to pay hefty sums to televise cricket on TV. India was a restricted market with only 1 national broadcaster - DD a.k.a. Doordarshan, which would charge the BCCI Rs 5 Lakh to broadcast 1 game.

There was also a time when BCCI also had to pay money to the travelling sides to come & play cricket in India. It was called “Tour Money” - which was demanded by countries like Australia & England to travel and play cricket matches in India, for whom our country was considered just a cricketing backwater.

To put things in context, we are now in times where Viacom18 pays the BCCI about Rs 67.7 crore per game, i.e approximately total of Rs 5960 crore for the television and digital rights of India's home international games for the next five years for a total of 88 matches.

I repeat, i.e. ~$8 million for 1 game.

Anyway, Let's rewind a little bit & let me give you a glimpse of how this change came about:

1983: The Dawn of Indian Cricket After the World Cup

Most cricketing gurus will point to the 1983 World Cup Win as the changing tides of Indian cricket, but it actually didn't make a much difference in monetary value.

While the win undoubtedly elevated cricket's popularity in India it didn’t transform BCCI into a business powerhouse like it is today. This was a gradual process, & it took a lot of time.

While the world recognised that India had massive potential to drive the game because of its huge population, not many were convinced that it could become a business powerhouse, nor did it become one overnight. And they were right! It didn’t radically change the business end of the sport—at least not immediately.

1984

Right after winning the World Cup, India secured the rights to host the 1987 World Cup in the subcontinent along with Pakistan. It was a stroke of genius & almost a coup, to secure these rights, since England & Australia acted as gatekeepers and pushed & nudged all other nations to NOT let the World Cup move out of England, but India successfully secured the hosting rights—That’s a story for another time.

1987

The BCCI was still struggling to generate enough sponsorship & revenue from the World Cup, but they eventually managed to pull it off with the backing of the Reliance Group a.k.a. Dhirubhai Ambani. It was a giant step forward for BCCI. Albeit it was still marked by huge losses in revenue.

While hosting the World Cup in India definitely helped increase the viewership & popularity of the sport, it was hard for BCCI to make $$$ in a country that was just getting out of the clutches of poverty, primarily because of British colonialism.

1992

BCCI was still running under losses. Infact in 1992, BCCI had a loss of Rs 62 lakh, equivalent to around Rs 4.9 crores when adjusted for today’s inflation.

BCCI was still paying DD (Doordshan) a hefty sum to broadcast each match, and it was getting a little tired of it. They were convinced that these rights had more value.

Let’s remember that it was around this time, in 1991, that liberalisation was finally hitting the shores of India—India was opening up to the world.

1993

1993 is when things turned around. The game changed.

BCCI took a bold step by going to court against Doordarshan and securing the rights to sell broadcasting rights for the India-England series to the TWI group (Trans World International), marking a significant shift.

While this was a relatively smaller series, this did not bode too well for DD. There were multiple disputes and a lot of legal back and forth, with the Supreme Court eventually providing BCCI the freedom to choose their preferred broadcasting partner.

TWI group eventually became the primary & the first foreign broadcaster of a big multi-national tournament hosted in India (HERO Cup in November 1993) and forced Doordarshan to pay TWI $1 million for rights to telecast matches in India.

Remember that Doordarshan (DD) is a state-owned public television broadcaster founded & operated by the Government of India. This was a huge monumental win for the BCCI.

The year 1993, changed the BCCI & Indian cricket, with money coming from the broadcasting rights, for the first time BCCI turned profitable, They made a profit of USD $600,000.

2000s

Things had started changing drastically ever since; In fact, in the year 2000, Doordarshan paid Rs 240 Crores to BCCI to secure 4-year TV rights to broadcast the cricket matches.

Think about years where DD had a strong hold as broadcaster in India. Sigh!

Also, of course another huge contributing factor to the growth, was the Indian cricket team performing really well at the top ICC multi-national tournaments, like winning the Champions Trophy in 2002 and finishing runner-up in the 2003 World Cup.

Thus leading to a rise in new-found celebrity status amongst cricketers for the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, and others, who all eventually bagged multi-million dollar sponsorships & brand endorsements that made many youngsters want to pick up the sport.

2006

In Feb 2006, Nimbus Sports, secured global media rights for Indian cricket for a staggering USD 549 million—approximately Rs 2000 Crore—for a 4-year contract that included cable, broadband, and direct-to-home (DTH) rights in addition to Internet and radio rights.

For some of you, millennials thinking that you have some memory bells ringing of the sound of “Nimbus”, remember the “NEO Sports” tv channel where we watched a ton of cricket? Yes, that was the company!

2008

The Indian Premier League (IPL), launched in 2008, transformed cricket into a spectacle of entertainment with a league structure and team owners like Ambani's owning the Mumbai Indians and Shahrukh Khan owning the Kolkatta Knight Riders, & a plethora of celebrities & business stalwarts trying their hands at institutionalizing the game of cricket, which competed directly with prime-time TV, which was slotted when most Indians were having dinner with families, & these games rivalled cinema and other entertainment options for Indians.

Of course, Media played a crucial role in the IPL's success. Television stations were willing to pay large sums for broadcasting rights, and the Indian audience's appetite for cricket was insatiable. BCCI saw itself becoming the richest body in cricket, accounting for 80% of the sport's income worldwide.

In fact, Sony acquired the TV rights for the IPL (Indian Premier League) for USD 918 million for a 10 year period. Just a year later in 2009, BCCI renegotiated the contract, selling the same rights to Sony for an astounding USD 1.63 billion!!!!!!

That is when Indian cricket & BCCI kept getting richer & richer & richer!

By now the tables had turned & it marked the beginning of a tremendous financial upswing for BCCI, with the money pouring in. Over the years, they have reinvested significantly in the sport, focusing on infrastructure and team performance.

2011 & 2012

In 2011, the power dynamics shifted after India won the World Cup. In 2012, Star Sports started buying broadcasting rights to multiple channels & dominated the TV rights space for Indian cricket.

If you look at this from a business point of view, IPL & the broadcasting rights brought in tons & tons of money & this became a propellor for the BCCI to dominate the world cricket, pushed it to the forefront of world cricket, where for the first time, an Indian became the Head of the ICC (International Cricket Council).

2022

The IPL's financial success was exemplified by its media rights auction, which collectively sold for $6.2 billion for matches from 2022 to 2027, making it the second most valuable sports league globally, behind only the NFL.

With a rich BCCI and India performing well, today, the countries that hesitated to play in India, absolutely love coming here for a series. There’s more attention, more shenanigans, and ultimately, shitloads of money.

BCCI's journey from struggling to pay for game broadcasts to becoming a financial powerhouse is truly an awe-inspiring saga of cricket's evolution in India.

As for cricket, it has evolved from a quiet and traditional pastime to a global entertainment industry driven by the IPL, and it continues to grow and adapt to attract new audiences and investors worldwide.