BCCI president Anurag Thakur feels Lodha Committee's recommendations are not practical

The board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is all set to reset the commercial terms of its most valuable asset, the IPL’s broadcasting rights at the end of this year’s tournament. The newly elected BCCI president Anurag Thakur talked about the board’s outline of the commercial aspects and also talked about the Lodha committee’s recommendation regarding advertisement.

In a recent interview in The Economic Times, the 42-yer-old said, "At the moment, I can only say that IPL is the fastest growing league in the world. It clearly showcases that people are interested, fans are engaged and broadcasters are generating good amount of revenue.

“So, we will be looking at a very good amount, a manifold jump in the current agreement. I am sure once the negotiations start after May 29, BCCI will be able to generate handsome revenue. “

The Member of the Parliament also expressed his views on Lodha Committee’s recommendations to restrict advertisement breaks during the broadcast of matches. He pointed out that the Lodha Committee’s recommendations aren’t practical enough and even explained the reason elaborately.

He said, ”If you look at sports pages in newspapers, you will find 7-9 articles/columns written by various sportsmen with advertisement in between them, which brings revenue for the newspaper. If that advertisement is taken away, the revenue of the newspaper will go down and they will not be able to give that kind of dedicated coverage to sports as well.

“Similarly for the game of cricket, if the advertisement is taken away during the matches, the revenue will come down which will impact all the state cricket association which have to create infrastructure for domestic matches. And, payments to the players - national as well as international - will also come down.

“It will adversely impact the Indian cricket and benefit other boards. So, Lodha recommendations are not practical in nature.”

The 42-year-old also explained how the approach will be towards maximizing revenue for the whole of Indian cricket. He extensively talked about reaching out to the current generation and said, “So, how to reach out to the current generation and showcase the history of BCCI and the glory of Indian cricket over the period of last 7-8 decades, that is one area. Social media and domestic cricket are other areas.”

He also pointed out that on which aspect BCCI’s revenue majorly depends and said, “Today, BCCI's revenue totally depends upon how many matches we host every year. So you get a lot of revenue. “

Thakur also spelled out BCCI’s strategy in the near future of hosting international matches in the nation. He said, “Minimum 15 matches. 14-15 international matches we have got to host. We get close to Rs 43 crore per game. But we will not play more than 18 matches in India.”