MELBOURNE, Oct 29 (PTI): Cricket Australia today approved overseas private investments in its revamped IPL-style Twenty20 tournament from next year, paving the way for Indian companies and individuals to become minority stake holders of the teams.
Announcing the launch of Big Bash Bash Twenty20 League from 2011-12 after the Cricket Australia Board meeting here, CA chief executive James Sutherland said minority private ownership of franchisees has been approved and the process of seeking expressions of interest will start after working out the details.
�The Board has approved investment of minority holdings in each of the respective teams and the details of that will be further contemplated in the coming weeks. It will, over the coming months, consider the terms under which that private investment may take place but the Board is certainly open to that,� Sutherland said at a press conference.
�I think it�s interesting to see the sort of values one might place on these teams based on the investor interest; certainly compared to other sporting franchises or teams around this country it puts these Big Bash teams at an all new level and as high a value as any sporting team in the country,� he said.
Sutherland said various models of private ownership will have to be looked into and details worked out in order to make sure it works for everyone.
�All of the teams may well have private investment, we�ll see how things unfold and what expressions of interest may come through in terms of investment, but as a matter of principle the board has approved minority holdings as being the level of investment they will permit.
�There are certainly opportunities (from private investors) on the table and they are opportunities that will be explored over the coming weeks once we�ve worked through the detail,� said Sutherland who had predicted that the BBL can revolutionise the game just like the Kerry Packer World Series did three decades ago.
Media reports had claimed that Indian companys are waiting to take the plunge by splashing big sums of money in the eight franchisees of BBL once private investment is approved by the CA.
The reports even said that Australia�s most powerful cricket states NSW and Victoria will have Indian part-owners as they have already sold shares to giant Indian corporations for around USD 60 million in return for profits from the IPL-type eight-team Twenty20 tournament.
Daily Telegraph said Brisbane-based Gautam Adani Group, which lost an IPL bid, is interested in buying stakes in an Australian side for the BBL.
The newspaper said NSW Cricket has set up a separate business entity, known as Blues Inc, to run the state�s Twenty20 franchises, and Indian investors want a 49 per cent share of the company and have all but signed off on a figure of USD 30 million. Another daily, The Australian claimed that NSW had discussions with Jay Mehta, the billionaire co-owner of IPL side Kolkata Knight Riders, about investing in the state�s cricket.
It said that both NSW and Victoria have different four-man consortia from India willing to pay millions of dollars to take a minority share-holding in the new Sydney and Melbourne teams.
Desperate to cash in on the Twenty20 gold rush with the advent of the IPL, CA has brought forward its BBL plans by a year but Sutherland said the new league should not be seen as a competitor to the hugely successful Indian Premier League.
�I don�t think we see ourselves as a competitor to the IPL (in terms of player earnings) and certainly the revenues that the Cricket Australia Big Bash League can generate. In a small market such as Australia it�s not going to be the same as the IPL. But at the same time this league is on the international stage and the teams that play-off in the finals will qualify for the Champions League Twenty20.
�I�d prefer not to go into the specific detail (of which areas are being looked at for the expansion teams) of where we are looking at. We will go through a process of seeking expressions of interest over the coming weeks and we�re very interested in talking to people around the country who think it might be appropriate that a team be placed in a certain region,� he said.
