The amount of money that is coming into cricket is just unbelievable. Look at the Indian Premier League which is said to be expecting even higher returns in the years ahead after striking a bumper $2.55 billion broadcast deal to become one of the world's richest sports competitions. According to media reports, IPL chairman Rajev Shukla believes there is plenty more growth to come for the glitzy Twenty20 cricket league, whose heady success comes despite its history of corruption scandals.
But his argument that he wasn't surprised at the IPL's new earning power, which is tipped to have a wide-ranging impact on cricket, much as Kerry Packer's renegade World Series Cricket of the 1970s ushered in a new era for the sport. Although Shukla has claimed that every year IPL is growing in terms of reach, in terms of value and impact, questions remain about the financial propriety of various deals that take place in the name of cricket.