Sri Lanka eyeing for record profits against India and Bangladesh
Sri Lanka’s ongoing tour of Bangladesh will end with the 2nd match of a two-T20I series on 18th February. Then the two teams will be joined by India to play in the Nidahas trophy in Sri Lanka. The tri-nation tournament is scheduled to take place from 6-18 March.
SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala said that the board expected a profit of at least USD 6.5 million from the upcoming tournament through the sale of rights.
During a media briefing in Colombo on Thursday, Sumathipala stated, “We are happy to announce that this event will bring in the highest viewership, listenership and digital penetration for an event of SLC's own.
“Our profits generated from this event will be the highest in the history of Sri Lankan cricket in one single tournament. We have watched carefully as to how other global tournaments have been marketed. How the ICC markets the World Cup and World T20. This will be the best tournament conducted by SLC. This will be a landmark event.”
"For the last 15 to 20 years, we sold the marketing rights, that covered the entire rights of an event the board owned, to one company. That included television rights, marketing rights, and everything. We decided to split this into various areas. Broadcasters we are going separately sponsors separately and digital separately," Sumathipala added.
All seven games of the tournament, including the final, will be played at Colombo's R. Premadasa Stadium. The Nidahas trophy will be staged to celebrate Sri Lanka’s 70 years of independence. SLC appointed Lagardere Sports, an international sports marketing agency, as the marketing arm for the event.
The SLC president said, "With the new technology, mobile phone companies are showing huge interests. Therefore the digital marketing rights are expanding. We felt that SLC was not getting the potential revenue. We can't do that alone with little expertise of our own. Our market is very small. If you take a tournament like IPL, several marketing companies are involved. So we have gone to capable people. We have outsourced and brought in Lagardere. They know how to go to the world market and sell our rights."
Thilanga Sumathipala also thanked former BCCI president late. Mr. Jagmohan Dalmiya for helping Sri Lanka in organizing the first-ever Nidahas trophy in 1998.
"Late. Mr. Jagmohan Dalmiya was kind enough to send the Indian team to Sri Lanka when we celebrated our 50th independence in 1998 and conducted the Nidahas Trophy. BCCI again, without any hesitation, agreed to send the Indian team this time. We are thankful to India," he explained.
Sumathipala also revealed that Sri Lanka will have their own franchise-based tournament as they are the only country in the sub-continent who currently do not organize such competition.
"In this region, we are the only country that is not playing a franchise-based tournament. We will go to the market and we will find who the parties that are interested are. We are keen to not to repeat the mistakes of the past. We have to make sure that genuine sponsors are coming through. We have to be transparent as this will be a product owned by SLC," Sumathipala concluded.
