IPG Dubai buys LPL rights

Lanka Premier League 2020

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Angelo Mathews in the inaugural edition of SLPL 2012 | ©Ron Gaunt/SPORTZPICS/SLPL

Innovative Production Group (IPG), a Dubai based sports broadcasting company, has secured the event sponsorship rights for the next five years of the upcoming Lanka Premier League (LPL) tournament, ThePapare.com learns.

Sport Minister grants approval for Lanka Premier League

Said total rights for the LPL include television broadcasting rights, franchise ownership rights, global media rights, on ground sponsorship rights and event production rights, while SLC will only handle venues and umpires.

“IPG will pay SLC close to 2 million US Dollars for each of the 1st two years and in the remaining 3 years the figure will be enhanced by an aggregate of another 10 percent. They are also entitled to the broadcasting rights but they have to give 10 percent of it to SLC.” Mohan de Silva, SLC Secretary said, speaking to Daily FT.

IPG is an experienced company related to cricket production, broadcasting and sports league management and have hosted matches in Pakistan, South Africa and the UAE. They have also taken part in productions at franchise leagues such as the Pakistan Super League and Mzansi Super League. In March 2018, the company also hosted the T20 Nidahas Trophy in Sri Lanka where the India and Bangladesh teams also participated. 

Inaugural Lanka Premier League to start on 28th August

Explaining how IPG managed to secure the rights, de Silva went on to say, “Originally there were eight companies who showed interest to become the event sponsor. We requested for a $10,000 non-refundable deposit for Request for Proposal (RFP) to enable them to bid and they also had to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Four paid the $ 10,000 deposit but only two submitted bids – IPG and a company called Off-Spin from India. IPG were the only party that complied with all the requirements”

“We had a technical committee doing the evaluation, and also the financial evaluation had the background and the financial stability checked. All those were looked into and one added advantage for IPG is that they are the production right holders for the FTP (Future Tours Program) for Sri Lanka cricket and their credibility was already known through this commitment,” he continued.

According to SLC, the tournament is scheduled to start on 28th August and will host 5 teams named after the cities of Colombo, Dambulla, Galle, Jaffna and Kandy across 4 international Cricket grounds for 23 matches.  Each squad will consist of 9 local and 6 foreign players while 4 foreign players will be allowed to play in an XI.

However, SLC will have a major issue of bringing the foreign players and officials to the island as the government has postponed the re-opening of its international airport, which was initially set for 1st of August, to early September following the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in the island.

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