Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty has recorded a promotional video
for the Indian Premier League (IPL) team the Rajasthan Royals
Even as the Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty was launching the promotional video for the Indian Premier League (IPL) team the Rajasthan Royals, more doubts were being expressed today that the tournament would go ahead as planned.
Estimates put the total potential losses if the IPL is cancelled at 20billion rupees, or £285m, putting a huge hole in the business model for the league. Team owners are not expecting to make a profit in 2009 but plan at least to break even in the next few years.
Apart from the $1bn, ten-year deal for TV rights, split between the franchises and the IPL itself, sponsorship, advertising and gate receipts in some of the world’s largest stadiums could all be affected or even wiped out. Major sponsors for 2009 include Honda, Coca Cola, PepsiCo, Vodafone and Kingfisher.
IPL sources said the schedules were being looked at to see how movement of security personnel could be overhauled and increased to placate the fears of international players and their national bodies. The rush to reorganise the timetable - involving 40 matches in eight locations – comes despite an initial refusal by the IPL’s chairman Lalit Modi to countenance any such changes, which were first suggested by senior Indian government officials.
This has done little to soothe the growing number of international stars who are voicing their concerns over going to India next month. The Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who is scheduled to play for the Chennai Super Kings, said after escaping the Lahore attacks that he was reconsidering his participation in the IPL. "I don't know, we have to speak to them, see how the security is, make sure everything is right . . . not only the IPL, England, anywhere,” he told Australian radio.
"There's terrorist attacks everywhere. Nowhere will be safe anymore."
Daniel Vettori said that the Indian Government would have to reassure visiting players and teams that they would be safe if they came to the country. Tim May, chief executive of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations, said he had written to the IPL as “an increasing number of players have expressed a desire for an independent level of comfort surrounding security arrangements re this Event.”
The IPL franchises are nervous because it is unclear exactly how the league’s finances – including players’ salaries – would be affected by a postponing or cancellation. Some teams are still looking for sponsors while others finalised deals in January. “Any cancellation will be disastrous,” an IPL official was quoted as saying in The Times of India today. “We are not even thinking about it.”
Shilpa Shetty and the Rajasthan Royals seem to be banking on the tournament going ahead. The promotional video for last year's champions features the Bollywood star singing on a float in a carnival-style parade interspersed with the outrageous hitting and stump-shattering bowling that makes the league such a draw.
Speaking to journalists, Shetty said that the cricket world had to “try to be positive… and not bow down to terrorism. The only thing the IPL can do is to beef up security.”
Raj Kundra, the Royals’ owner, was even more bullish. “The IPL will go on – sport will go on,” he said.
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