BCCI earned Rs 27,411 crore revenue during FY18-22: MoS Finance tells Rajya Sabha

India’s cricket regulatory body Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has reported a combined revenue of Rs 27,411 crore in the last five fiscal years (FY18-FY22), Pankaj Chaudhary, MoS, Finance, told the Rajya Sabha. The cricket regulatory body has its earnings coming from media rights, sponsorships, and revenue shares from International Cricket Council (ICC). 

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) MP Anil Desai had tabled a question asking whether the Narendra Modi-led government was aware that BCCI was the second wealthiest sports organisation globally. 

Desai had requested the government to share BCCI's income, expenditures and tax details over the last five years. 

While replying to the query, Chaudhary said that the Centre did not maintain data regarding the financial standings of sports bodies on a global scale. But he did share the board's figures in Rajya Sabha. 

He added that BCCI paid Rs 1,159 crore in income tax for the fiscal year 2021–2022. "In the financial year 2020-21, BCCI paid Rs 844.92 crore in income tax, slightly lower than Rs 882.29 crore paid in 2019-20. In FY2019, the board paid Rs 815.08 crore as taxes, higher than Rs 596.63 crore paid in 2017-18," Chaudhury said in his answer. 

The BCCI has earned a revenue of Rs 7,606 crore for the fiscal year 2021–2022, while its spending came to about Rs 3,064 crore. Its revenue during 2020–21 was Rs 4,735 crore, while the expenses were Rs 3,080 crore. 

Recently, BCCI had asked companies to bids for media rights to its international and domestic matches. The invitation to tender will be made available for a non-refundable fee of Rs 15 lakh. There are three main broadcasters which are the potential bidders -- Disney Star, Viacom18 and Sony Sports Network. After Zee-Sony merge yesterday, the entity is expected to bid for the media rights. 

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Star India Private Limited won the BCCI India international and domestic media rights for the period from April 2018 to March 2023 following an online auction process. It had the highest bid of Rs 6,138 crore for the global consolidated rights package. 

This cycle, BCCI lowered the overall base price to Rs 45 crore per match. The TV and digital rights of the bilateral series have been divided into two packages at Rs 200 million (Rs 20 crore) and Rs 250 million (Rs 25 crore) per match, respectively, for 88 matches within the cycle (25 Tests, 27 ODI and 36 T20I). The combined base price stands at Rs 39.6 billion (Rs 3,960 crore). Earlier, Disney Star paid Rs 61 crore per match in the recently concluded cycle.

Earlier this week, a report by Elara Capital stated the cricketing body may earn something between Rs 6,500 crore and Rs 7,500 crore by selling the separate TV and digital rights for the home games of Team India. The cricket regulatory body has reduced the base price by 25 per cent per match than in the earlier cycle. A lower premium is expected due to fewer platforms bidding, curtailed ad spend of new age and commerce firms, and IPL revenue decline of 20-25 per cent YoY in 2023, the report stated. 

BCCI, along with ICC, will be hosting the ODI World Cup this year. The tournament will start on October 5, where the first match will be played at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. 

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