Lone host India likely to earn $2.6bn from cricket World Cup

BANGLORE: India is hosting the World Cup cricket tournament alone for the first time, and the Indian economy is getting huge benefits from the mega event. According to a study, India is expected to earn more than 66,000 crore rupees in Pakistani currency ($2.6 billion) from the tournament, which would further fill the coffers of the world’s richest Indian cricket board.

According to the study, the World Cup in England in 2019 generated an income of $350 million for the British economy. In the past, India hosted the World Cup together with Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. This is for the first time that 48 matches of the World Cup would be held in 10 Indian cities, including the world’s largest Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, which has a record seating capacity of 132,000 spectators.

The World Cup will be paid by the ICC, and India would only make money from the event. According to Indian media, the highest revenue would come from TV rights, as 36,000 crore rupees in Pakistani currency will be received from TV broadcasting rights. Most of the matches in the tournament are day and night; therefore, during the seven weeks of the World Cup, spectators would get together and enjoy matches with their friends and family like a picnic. When friends and family get together, food, its delivery and related businesses are estimated to generate 15,000 crores in Pakistani rupee.

The early matches of the World Cup attracted little number of spectators, but as the tournament progressed, more and more people are flocking to the ground. The revenue from the sale of World Cup tickets is expected to be more than Rs6,000 crores. During the World Cup, a large number of foreign tourists, media representatives, broadcasters and commentators, including 10 foreign teams, are in India for the matches. Travel and merchandising is likely to generate an income of 66,000 crore Pakistani rupees. Coca-Cola, Google, Indian Unilever, Emirates Airline, Saudi Arabia’s Aramco and Nissan are among the companies sponsoring the World Cup.

Other companies from Asia, Europe and other countries including America are also among the sponsors. The rate of advertisements shown on television is 9 lakh Pakistani rupees per second. Thus, the rate of a ten-second advertisement is 90 lakh Pakistani rupees. Advertising rates are 40 per cent higher than the last World Cup.

The ICC has announced a total prize money of one crore dollars ($10 million) for the current World Cup. A prize money of $4 million has been announced for the winning team in Ahmedabad on Nov 19, while the losing team will get $2 million. Forty thousand dollars will be awarded to a team for winning each group match. A prize of $100,000 each has been announced for the six teams that did not qualify for the semi-finals, and $800,000 each for the losing teams.

According to the ICC’s financial model for 2017 to 2023, India will receive a major share of the ICC revenue. The Indian board will get $112 million more than the previous model, bringing the total to $405 million over eight years, while Pakistan will get $128 million. Pakistan receives 12 to 15 million dollars of this amount every year.

Former PCB chairman and former ICC president Ehsan Mani, who has also been head of the ICC’s financial committee, said that he had told the ICC that Pakistan and India should not have a group match in the World Cup.

When both the teams would play the semi-final, there would be more revenue. He said he had asked the ICC to fix $10 million for Pakistan, because major part of the revenue was generated due to Pakistan, but they did not agree with the proposal.

The benefit and share of the current ICC financial model also goes to India the most. He said that Zimbabwe and West Indies were not participating in the World Cup, and they would not get a share of the income, which would harm their cricket. He commented that ICC’s financial model was not based on equitable distribution of money generated through the World Cup.