The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) does not usually reveal detailed financial information.
However, because of India’s fervent love of the game and recurrent bidding wars for broadcast rights, it is reputed to be one of the world’s most profitable regulatory organisations.
On Tuesday, a government minister detailed recent BCCI earnings before parliament, revealing income of $919 million and expenditure of $370 million for the fiscal year ending March 2022, leaving a $549 million surplus.
It was the board’s largest surplus in the five years from 2017-18, with profits of $3.3 billion and spending of $1.8 billion over the same time.
Due to its outsized riches in comparison to other national cricket boards, the all-powerful BCCI is sometimes believed to dictate the decisions in international cricket.
According to ESPN Cricinfo, the BCCI stands to earn around $230 million per year between 2024 and 2027, or 38.5 percent of the International Cricket Council‘s yearly profits of $600 million.
The BCCI sold the broadcast rights to the hugely successful Indian Premier League (IPL) for a record $6.2 billion last year.
The board recently issued a bidding for media rights to its international and local matches, which is expected to bring in another large sum.
(With AFP inputs)
