Indian cricket nets US$1.5bn surplus in five years
India's cricket board earned a surplus of around US$1.5 billion in the five years to 2021-22, the country's parliament heard during a rare look into the sporting body's finances. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) does not typically publish its finances in detail. But it is known to be one of the world's most lucrative governing bodies thanks to India's die-hard love of the game and periodic bidding wars over broadcast rights. A government minister listed recent BCCI earnings in parliament on Tuesday which revealed revenue of US$919 million and expenditure of US$370 million for the year to March 2022, leaving a surplus of US$549 million. It was the board's biggest surplus out of the five years from 2017-18, with earnings of US$3.3 billion and US$1.8 billion in expenses for the same period. The all-powerful BCCI is often said to call the shots in world cricket due to their outsized wealth compared to other national cricket boards. The BCCI also stands to earn approximately US$230 million per year between 2024-27 – or 38.5 percent of the International Cricket Council's annual earnings of US$600 million, according to ESPN Cricinfo. Last year, the BCCI sold its media rights for the wildly popular Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament for a whopping US$6.2 billion. The board has recently floated a tender for media rights for its international and domestic matches which is set to reap another huge windfall. (AFP)