Former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi has claimed that the T20 league is missing out an additional revenue of Rs 2,400 crore and blamed the BCCI for it.

The IPL began in 2008 with eight teams, and now it has been expanded to 10 franchises. The two new teams – Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants were added in 2022. However, the number of matches remain the same – 74.

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If the league sticks to the original home and away format involving 10 teams, there would be 94 games, 90 in the league phase and four including the playoffs and the final.

Recently, IPL chairman Arun Singh Dhumal told Financial Times that they need a bigger window in the international cricket calendar to expand to 94 matches.

Modi, in an interview with Sports starssaid the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is losing out on 20 games and with it a revenue of Rs 2,400 crore which would be shared by the board and team on a 50-50 basis.

“(For) every game, the BCCI gets 50 per cent, and the remaining 50 per cent is distributed to teams.

So, teams are now losing out on 20 games. It is by contractual obligation for the fees that they’re paying to provide them home and away,” Modi said.

“The home and away is where the value is. If you don’t have time in your calendar, don’t increase the number of teams. Simple as that. That’s not what we sold. Has everybody signed off on it? I guarantee not,” he added.

He questioned why the BCCI is not sticking to the original format of playing home and away games. “Why are they not playing home and away? There are excuses.

It is our contractual obligation. This is a commercial transaction for the teams.”

Explaining the revenue part from media rights for 94 IPL matches, he said, “If there were 94 matches today on a home and away basis, Rs 118 crore a game, it’s Rs 2,400 crore, just the media rights. That’s Rs 2,400 crores extra that’s coming to the BCCI.”

“Out of this, Rs 1,200 crores would have gone to the 10 teams, each team would have got 120 crores, and the team value should have automatically been higher,” he added.