MUMBAI:
Uday Shankar, chairman of
Star India
, which won the
IPL media rights
on Monday, had a very realistic take on the auction.
“The message is very clear. The health of Indian cricket is central to the health of global cricket,” he told TOI. “I have always maintained that if cricket in India weakens, it'll have an effect globally. A domestic tournament in India is cricket's global story,” he added.
Of the 13 competitors in the fray, Star always knew that the stiffest competition would come from
Sony Pictures
Network, the broadcast rights holders of the
IPL these last 10 years. Having won the rights for Indian cricket for six years in 2013, Star was keen on adding the IPL feather to its cap.
“Given the fact that we have danced around cricket all these years, yes... this is very satisfying indeed,” he said.
Underlining that it was a “very disciplined bid”, with a risky approach, Shankar said Star went to the auction with a 'everything or nothing' approach. “It was risky because if things didn't go our way, we would have been left only with the UK territory,” he said.
Five years ago, selling cricket in a US corporate boardroom wouldn't have been easy. “That's the uniqueness of IPL. The surprise of the day was Facebook offering $600m (Rs 3,900 crore) and that says much,” he said.
The Star India chief said the crux to a bidding of this stature lies in the fact that “digital transformation has been phenomenal”. Sooner than the pace at which things are moving, Shankar expects digital to catch up TV. “At the moment TV is cheap. Digital depends on a lot of things. But again, that's where it's heading,” he said.
Stay updated with the latest from IPL Auction 2025, including the final squads of all 10 teams – MI, CSK, RCB, GT, RR, KKR, DC, PBKS, SRH, and LSG. Don't miss the latest updates on our Live Cricket Score page.
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