Sutherland raises concerns over IPL's future

Sydney, Apr 26 (UNI) Questioning the Twenty20 cricket's future, CA chief executive James Suntherland has raised his concerns over the sustainability of the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) which has already achieved great success.

''It's all very well to have a whole lot of hype around a competition,'' Sutherland told 2KY.

''In order for it to be sustainable it needs to have its own virtual cycle that keeps all the parties happy.

''It's nice to pay the players well and get big money from television rights and sponsorships, but ultimately you've got to provide a return for the owners or in this case the franchises.

''As I understand it, the franchisees are starting to ask questions already,'' Sutherland added.

Sutherland was of the view that the franchisees will not be able to achieve their initial cost as a lot of tickets to games had been given away and there were other promotional costs too.

''It's going to be a long six weeks for the franchisees if they struggle to sell tickets,'' he said.

''I think in Hyderabad for the first game they only had a third of the ground full.

Sutherland added that the IPL could land in to financial crisis as the players too have to be payed huge amounts.

''You look at the number (cost) for the franchises, somewhere between 70 million dollars and 100 million dollars and they pay the players on top of that,'' he said.

''Explain it to me how they get their return.'' Australian players playing in the IPL will head back to Brisbane next week for a pre-series camp for the West Indies tour.

''There's absolutely no possibility of a window that compromises the Future Tours Programme and our international commitment,'' Sutherland said.

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