India's stock markets: Turbulent markets tilt in investors’ favour
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| India’s Board of Control rakes in huge franchise fees from the IPL |
A leading Indian newspaper describes it as a "game of murky deals, sleaze and power broking". Fast Company, a US magazine, nominates it as the subcontinent’s most innovative company. And a Mumbai-based analyst calls it "a tale of brazen corruption, unprecedented wealth, and booming market caps". At times it does seem that the Indian Premier League (IPL) is taking over the world’s 11th-largest economy. The world’s wealthiest cricket tournament is barely two years and three seasons old but already it is India’s free-market standard-bearer.
If ordinary Indians are enamoured of the IPL, it’s nothing compared with the country’s investment bankers, entrepreneurs and corporate chiefs. The sums of money involved are, for a nascent sports series, staggering. Launched to great acclaim in early 2008, the tournament was a smash hit with India’s 1.2 billion cricket-crazy populace. But it was also a rich man’s plaything. It cost, on average, $91 million to buy an IPL franchise in early 2008.
Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, paid $113 million for the rights to the Mumbai Indians team, a shade more than it cost the spirits billionaire Vijay Mallya, owner of Kingfisher Airlines and the Force India Formula One team, to buy Bangalore’s Royal Challengers.
