Raking in the moolah: WT20 brings windfall to ICC & BCCI chief's association

QUICK PILL

The practice

• The International Cricket Council pays local associations handsomely to host its global tournaments

• For the ongoing World T20 in India, it\'s paying Rs 1.65 crore for every men\'s match, and Rs 28.69 lakh for every women\'s game

Biggest beneficiary

• The Nagpur-based Vidarbha Cricket Association is set to earn the most from this tournament - Rs 9.66 crore

• Nagpur is ICC chairman and BCCI president Shashank Manohar\'s hometown. His son Advait is vice-president of the VCA

More in the story

• How much are other host associations earning?

• How has the shifting of the Indo-Pak match impacted Himachal and Bengal\'s earnings

• The logic behind the hosting rights - Board politics to the fore

It's not just a matter of pride for local cricket associations to host ICC tournaments - it's handsomely rewarding too. At this year's World Twenty20, currently being held across India, BCCI affiliates will earn Rs 1.65 crore for every men's match that they host. For every women's match, the figure will be Rs 28.69 lakh.

An ICC official told Catch that the money will be distributed by the BCCI, and the international body will then reimburse the amount.

Also read - Relief for Delhi: HC nod for WT20 games, but illegal stand shut to crowd & VIPs

The biggest beneficiary in the current tournament will be the Nagpur-based Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA), which is set to earn Rs 9.66 crore from the eight matches it is hosting.

Interestingly, ICC chairman and BCCI president Shashank Manohar hails from Nagpur, and is a former office-bearer of the VCA. His son, Advait, is currently a VCA vice-president.

The official said that since the World Twenty20 is an ICC event, the game's world governing body enters into an agreement with the host country's association - in this case, the BCCI. The BCCI, in turn, gets reimbursement from the ICC for the match hosting fee it pays to its affiliated state associations.

"This match-hosting fee is in consideration for the state associations making their stadiums available to the BCCI and International Business Corporation, a subsidiary of the ICC, for organising the ICC World Twenty20," the official explained.

The role of BCCI politics

In all, eight associations - the Delhi and District Cricket Association, the Cricket Association of Bengal, the Vidarbha Cricket Association, the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association, the Mumbai Cricket Association, the Karnataka State Cricket Association, the Punjab Cricket Association, and the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) - are hosting ICC World Twenty20 matches.

The allotment of these matches to the state associations is, actually, a reflection of the power equation within the BCCI.

Out of these eight associations, six fought last year's BCCI elections as part of the Jagmohan Dalmiya-Anurag Thakur group against the one led by N Srinivasan, then president of the BCCI and the TNCA.

The Srinivasan group lost power, despite a few of its candidates winning a few key positions. However, the two most important positions, of president and secretary, were won by the Dalmiya-Thakur combine. This group, after Dalmiya's death, fielded Manohar for the president's post, with help from a powerful minister in the Central government, and it continues to hold sway.

The Nagpur-based Vidarbha Cricket Association is set to earn Rs 9.66 crore from the ICC World T20

The Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association, headed by Thakur, would have been the second highest earner with Rs 8.57 crore. But the marquee India-Pakistan encounter, which was scheduled to be played at the HPCA headquarters, Dharamsala, was relocated to Kolkata after the Pakistan Cricket Board and the Pakistani government raised security concerns at the picturesque venue nestled in the mountains.

The relocation of the match also took Rs 1.66 crore away from the HPCA, leaving it at the fourth position in the list of highest revenue earners with Rs 6.63 crore.

The change boosted the Sourav Ganguly-headed Cricket Association of Bengal's kitty. It will now receive Rs 8.53 crore, instead of Rs 6.34 crore.

In third place, with Rs 8.32 crore, is the controversial DDCA, while Mumbai (Rs 6.34 crore), Karnataka (Rs 6.09 crore), Punjab (Rs 5.81 crore) and Tamil Nadu (Rs 1.14 crore) round out the bottom four.

But there's nothing surprising in this cycle of politicking within the BCCI; it's a long-standing BCCI convention that the president's and secretary's home associations always get the most important matches. Had Srinivasan been the BCCI president, the TNCA might have had got the final, instead of facing a situation where it hasn't been allotted a single men's match, and just four women's matches.

Also read - World T20 be damned, politicking is still DDCA administrators' priority

The strange case of DDCA

The financially-crippled DDCA will receive Rs 8.32 crore for staging 10 matches of both the men's and women's competitions at the Ferozeshah Kotla this month.

It is quite bizarre that an association that is always in the news for mismanagement and faces perpetual questions regarding its finances, the DDCA has emerged as the third-highest revenue earner.

The DDCA is scheduled to host four men's matches - including a semi-final encounter - from which it will receive Rs 6.60 crore, and from hosting six women's matches, it will get Rs 1.72 crore.

Himachal Pradesh was to be No.2 on the list. But the change of the Indo-Pak venue has boosted Bengal

During the 50-over World Cup in 2011, the ICC, through the BCCI, had given all the match-hosting associations Rs 3.34 crore ($750,000) per match.

The DDCA had then received Rs 13.36 crore for hosting four matches of the World Cup. But in its balance sheets of 2010-11 and 2011-12, the DDCA, quite inexplicably, showed a loss of Rs 69.23 lakh. And, more surprisingly, it did not explain the reasons for this loss.

When asked about the loss mentioned in the 2010-11 balance sheet, DDCA treasurer Narinder Batra had, at the time, said that the association would "show a profit" in the 2011-12 balance sheet, as it had not received the full consideration, but there was no change in the figures mentioned in 2011-12 balance sheet.

The Delhi & District Cricket Association will earn Rs 8.32 crore, the third highest among all venues

Strangely, the BCCI never asked questions of the DDCA about this surprising loss, when so much money was given by the ICC, as explicitly mentioned in the BCCI balance sheet of 2011-12.

It remains to be seen if the DDCA shows a profit or a loss this time around from hosting matches of the World T20.

According to the ICC official, the DDCA would have received the first of the three installments on 1 March, worth 25% of the total consideration.

"The BCCI would pay the second installment, also of 25%, by 15 March, and the third one, of 50%, within 30 days from the end of the World Twenty20," the official told Catch.

But, he said, the DDCA will have to furnish invoices 15 days before each of the payment dates in order to receive the money.

More in Catch - Delhi in jeopardy as World T20 venue, HC vacates stay order on Kotla demolition

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