I see no relevance to 50-over cricket: Former IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi

New Delhi [India], November 7 (ANI): The former Indian Premier League Commissioner Lalit Modi believes that the future of cricket is in the T20 format and the 50-over ODI format does not have relevance anymore and also feels that the format of Test cricket also needs to be tweaked a bit.
"Where do I see cricket in India? I see 50 overs going, completely. I see no relevance to it. It's there for the sake of being there. I see relevance in a four-day Test, not five days, and a day-night Test because people don't have the luxury to sit from morning to evening. If it's a day-night Test, they might go after office hours to watch the game," said former IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi said while speaking to Revsportz.
The man who played a pivotal role in launching the Indian Premier League feels that had he been still there in the setup then he would have launched the second tier of the league and would made the league comprised of 20 teams.
"I'm not part of the BCCI. If I was there, I would definitely be thinking of launching a second tier, with ownership coming in - not at the valuation of a billion dollars, but at valuation of 60 to maybe 100 million. This was the valuation of the IPL in year one. That can be up to 20 teams, coming into the secondary league, and two teams are relegated [from the IPL]. That would make it extremely competitive, and extremely valuable to the players, and it would make a whole new game altogether. Instead of four foreign players, you'd have two. Or maybe you'd need four because you need more talent to be trained up. What the foreign players do is bring in locker-room discipline, and provide the experience that made them what they are today," said Lalit Modi.
IPL is a big brand in cricket now and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) sold the media rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL) for 2023-27 for Rs 48,390 crore. The rights were sold in an e-auction from June 12 to June 14, 2022. And the board is making a huge amount of money through these media rights and sponsorship rights.
"BCCI retains 50 per cent of the revenue of all media rights. It retains 50 per cent of the revenue of all sponsorship rights. In addition, it gets 20 per cent of the revenue of all the teams. Okay? So if you look at it, ideally, if there's USD 200 coming in, in total revenue, IPL gets 100, and the team owners get 100. All ten teams get 100. But then they have to shell out 20. So IPL gets 120, and they're left with 80. So the differential of about 35 per cent to 40 per cent," explained Lalit Modi. (ANI)