IPL isn't foolproof

The problem, top franchise managers explain when speaking off the record, is that the IPL, contrary to Modi’s grand declarations, never had a self-sustaining business model. It had ten different models, one for every team, and that each one was viable only when the franchisee’s core business was thriving. That’s why the consortiums, which didn’t have large parent companies to soak in the losses, were the first to get a taste of reality.

The reality is that the IPL, like all businesses, is irrefutably linked to the global economy. Still only half a decade old, it is in fact the logical first casualty when an owner’s mother brand is under attack. ‘Recession- free’ is just pseudo-economics propagated by people in crinkle-free suits.