Under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Mumbai Indians (MI) has gone from strength to strength with each new season. MI have emerged as one of the finest T20 teams in world cricket and with five IPL titles under their belt, the franchise is now the most valuable franchise in the tournament.
As per a Forbes report, MI is now valued at $1.3 billion, making it the most valuable franchise among all the ten existing teams in the tournament. The report went on to add that how massive is MI’s valuation can be ascertained from the fact that their valuation is more than six MLB teams, 27 NHL teams and every MLS team.
“The IPL is the most prominent cricket league in the world in terms of attracting sponsors and media rights,” Ajimon Francis, managing director at Brand Finance India, a brand valuation and strategy consultancy, told Forbes. “A lot of credit goes to founders of the IPL, who took ideas from the NBA and European soccer leagues, and good governance by the BCCI with regards to clear visibility of team funding and ensuring the tournament continued during Covid.”
In a country where cricket is nothing less than a religion, the brands want to make the most of the IPL season with millions glued to their TV sets to watch the most popular T20 league on the planet. Two more franchises were added to IPL’s roster ahead of IPL 2022 season with CVC Capital paying around $750 million for the Gujarat Titans (GT) and Sanjiv Goenka purchasing the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) for around $950 million.
As per the ongoing contract, while IPL’s official broadcaster Star India is paying the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) $2.4 billion over five years for television and streaming rights, the next media rights for another five years are expected to be sold for anything between a whopping $6 to $7 billion.
