London, June 21: The huge commercial success of the World Twenty20 has given the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) enough reasons to turn down the offer to host an overseas edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in order to promote their own domestic tournament.
The figures have been staggering as far as the success of the second World Twenty20 was concerned and an estimated global audience of 400 million watched India lose to England in the group stages. Just under 96 per cent of the available tickets were sold for the games at Lord’s, the Oval and Trent Bridge, which have reached record television audiences.
The inaugural event in 2007 struggled to sell enough tickets to make up the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) minimum guarantee of 2m dollars to South Africa for hosting the competition. At this year’s tournament, though, the final warm-up day alone matched that amount.
This was because the ECB could charge as much as 60 pounds for a ticket and still attract 23,000 to The Oval for India’s warm-up meeting with Pakistan and sell 10,000 Lord’s tickets for South Africa’s meeting with Sri Lanka. IPL commissioner Lalit Modi has already disclosed a few of his which also includes to play two editions of the tournament from 2011.
Although the unqualified success of the World Twenty20 makes England the only viable commercial option, the recent IPL played in South Africa attracted disappointing crowds the ECB are thought to be resistant to Modi as the domestic governing body launches its own second T20 competition next season, the P20, reports The Guardian.
”We’ll have to see the availability of the dates. We wouldn’t be in a position to do it next year because after the IPL is the (T20) World Cup in the West Indies,” Modi said. ”So I don’t think we will move to across the world then but we’ll definitely try and aim for 2011,” Modi said.
Meanwhile, the ECB are more intent on promoting the P20 next season while continuing to discuss with the Indian, South African and Australian boards how best to arrange an international calendar which could include a global event every two years.
Those would be the World Cup and World T20, which means the Champions Trophy should eventually be phased out from the international schedule.
This year’s IPL was moved from India to be played in South Africa because of security concerns as the government failed to guarantee the safety of the particpating teams.
But Modi was adamant the IPL will take place in India next season. ”Absolutely confident, we’ll always want the main season in India. And we are looking at taking a second season around the world.”
—–Agencies