Non-Indian domestic teams hurt most by CLT20 cancellation
With the Champions League T20 discontinued due to limited public following, ESPNcricinfo takes a look at how the cancellation of the tournament will affect participating countries and their respective revenue systems
The CLT20 was cancelled because of the lack of viability from a broadcaster's perspective. An IPL insider revealed that the tournament was worth almost a billion dollars over ten years but the broadcasters failed to recover even a tenth of that.
Impact on respective boards
Of the three stakeholders - the BCCI, CA and CSA - the Indian board and its teams are the best off. The BCCI will receive US$190 million - more than half the $330 million settlement between the three boards and the broadcaster Star India - and the IPL teams will no longer have to spend thousands of dollars for retaining overseas players for the CLT20. "For Indian franchises, most of the amount would be spent towards retaining the services of a Pollard or de Villiers," the source said.
CA is the next biggest beneficiary. It will receive US$80 million following the closure of CLT20 and has a television rights deal to cushion it against other loss. Cricket Australia made somewhere in the region of US$25 million in each edition of the Champions League, and in the early seasons of the Big Bash League, it was this money that allowed the BBL project head Mike McKenna to say "domestic Twenty20 operations" were running at a profit.
The South African board will receive US$60 million from the settlement but its franchises, who operate as separate companies to the national body, are concerned about their own affairs. CSA will split the participation fees of the two teams who took part in the tournament between all six of their franchises, who received R350,000 (US$28.778) a year.
The West Indies Cricket Board loses between $300,000 and 400,000 as a whole from the tournament being cancelled. A major portion, over 65% of the money they would earn from the CLT20 was channelled towards development in the territories with the remainder retained by the board.
For Sri Lanka, where the board owns all the franchises, the effect will be felt at national level. The SLC received the US$500,000 participation fee plus the amounts from players retained by IPL franchises. Around 5% of this money went into operational costs, another 5% to the players and the remaining 90% into SLC coffers.
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo's South Africa correspondent