>The Indian Premier League (IPL), a 20/20 local-global cricket competition, is real and rich. The recent bidding wars for various international cricket players has produced a frenzy of bidding. It has shown just how m
uch money there is in Indian cricket with about $A44 million spent buying up the rights to 77 players from around the world. What has made this more interesting and glamorous to the pu
blic has been the direct involvement of India’s richest businessmen and big-name Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta (pictured)
The top prices were cornered by Indian and Australian players – ranging from Indian skipper MS Dhoni’s $A1.63 million, $A1.47 million to Australian all rounder Andrew Symonds and $A1.03 million to Indian bowler Ishant Sharma and $A979,500 to Australia’s Brett Lee. Yet top players like Ricky Pointing could only fetch $A435,350 – reflecting how important media perception is. Mind you all these figures are for about 18 weeks of cricket (6 weeks per year for 3 years) – not a bad payout and hence the strong participation of players from all over the world.
The figures took some administrators by surprise. “The market is determining the players’ prices – it’s nothing else but that. That’s how a free market economy flows,” said IS Bindra, IPL governing member and a former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
For more information on the IPL Schedule check out the Road Less Travelling blog which has a good post on this topic. CricInfo also has detailed coverage on the IPL and related topics.
Photos courtesy of ibnlive
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