Financially, Indian cricket — and cricketers — have never had it so good. In the past quinquennium, BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) has earned a revenue of Rs.27,400 crore, transforming into one of the richest sports governance bodies worldwide, rivalling NBA, USA and the English and European Football leagues. Last year, it clocked up a record profit of Rs.4,400 crore, on which after paying for the luxurious expenses of paunchy officials and Test and budding cricketers, it proudly paid income tax aggregating Rs.1,159 crore. But although everyone has benefitted, the huge audiences that attend T-20, ODIs (one-day internationals) and even five-day test matches in India and contribute heavily to BCCI’s bulging coffers, continue to be massively short-changed.
Indeed, one wonders why enthusiastic viewers line up for hours to buy tickets to watch live cricket matches when they are treated like dirt by the men — yes it’s always men — who constitute the top management of BCCI. Large notices on the gates of cricket stadiums prohibit ticket purchasers who fork out substantial sums (Rs.4,000-80,000) from taking their own snacks, water, cushions into stadiums. Inside, spectators are at the mercy of authorised vendors who sell these wares at five multiples of street prices. Moreover, public toilets in India’s cricket stadia — as in all public places — are invariably an odiferous mess.
Perhaps BCCI bosses don’t care about stadium spectators because the largest audience is in homes worldwide, watching matches on increasingly bigger and better idiot boxes. But BCCI moguls should bear in mind that large crowds watching live matches contribute to the overall experience of television audiences. Empty stands will drive down all-important ad revenue. Therefore, it would be advisable for the plutocrat-bureaucrats of BCCI to cut the world’s largest live cricket audiences a better deal.
