Board of Control for Cricket in India

• It comes just a week after Australia won the World Test Championship, defeating India in comprehensive style at The Oval in south London.
• This is significant because when it comes to the economics of cricket, it’s India that’s in the box seat, not England.

India is the new cricket powerhouse

• The 2023 season of the Indian Premier League drew more than 500 million viewers, a 32% growth in television ratings on last season.
• The first IPL match attracted 130 million viewers, compared with a record 115.1 million for the 2023 Super Bowl.
• The 2023 IPL champions the Chennai Super Kings are valued at about US$1.15 billion (A$1.67 billion), according to Forbes in 2022.

So how did India do it?

• India acted fast to surf the T20 wave.
• By 2025, India’s middle class will number 583 million, or 41% of the country’s projected population.
• This gives teams deep pockets when buying players from all over the globe, with the TV broadcast rights topping up IPL coffers too.
• This has also boosted women’s cricket, including their pay packets, with the launch of the Women’s Premier League in India earlier this year.

Cricket diplomacy

• It just shows the power of India in world cricket, and more generally the power of sport in today’s global economy.
• Cricket diplomacy was on display then too, spawning now famous images of Prime Ministers Modi and Albanese on a chariot before the fourth test match in Ahmedabad.
• But differences remain

  Cricket diplomacy has been central to the Modi-Albanese partnership, which highlights the role of sport in political and economic relationship building.

• And the rise of the IPL has boosted India’s ascendancy as a superpower in world cricket.