Is cricket financially healthy?

Summary

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Business Daily: Is Cricket Financially Healthy?

Podcast: Business Daily
Host: Will Bain, BBC World Service
Air Date: November 19, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the finances underpinning the global game of cricket, as the sport faces profound change from streaming wars, shifting formats, and widening inequalities between nations. As the storied Ashes Test series between England and Australia reignites fierce rivalries and drives marketing dollars, the episode asks: is cricket financially healthy? Experts from broadcasting, economics, and sports marketing share insights on the sport’s evolving landscape, the rise of lucrative short-form leagues, the changing fortunes of Test cricket, and unprecedented growth—especially in the women’s game.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Cricket in the Age of Streaming and Big Money

• Investment into Sport:
  • Cricket, like other major global sports, is experiencing a boom in media rights and sponsorship, particularly fueled by streaming's rise and the hunt for content.
  • The Ashes remains a vital marketing hook, drawing global interest and blue-chip sponsors (e.g., Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox Group).
    • “Just the fact those ads are for the main rights holders... gives a sense of the value of this series of cricket matches to big media companies.” – Will Bain (02:25)

2. The IPL as an Economic Powerhouse

• IPL's Unique Model:
  • Prakash Warkankar charts IPL's transformation since 2008, emphasizing its American-style razzmatazz—Bollywood, music, entertainment—to make cricket a family event.
    • “It brought Bollywood front and center... It became an entertaining evening with cricket as its ostensible centerpiece.” – Prakash Warkankar (04:45)
• Impact on Indian Society:
  • IPL’s growth has had ripple effects: stadium staff, local vendors, and youth in rural areas have all benefited.
    • “Stories of young people... who probably would have been destined to work in a coal mine or pull a rickshaw... heroes and heroines who've come through.” – Prakash Warkankar (05:36)
• Financial Scale:
  • IPL’s current valuation exceeds $18 billion, with media rights sold for a record $6 billion over five years (03:45).

3. The Decline of Test Cricket in Some Markets

• Shift to Shorter Formats:

  • Test cricket, the long-form game, sees declining viewership and revenue, particularly outside “Big Three” countries (England, India, Australia).
  • South Africa will not host a home men’s Test for 18 months, due in part to economics and stadium refurbishment for the 2027 World Cup (07:11).

• Economic Strains:

  • Test matches are expensive: e.g., Zimbabwe reports $500,000 cost per match — costs often outweigh broadcaster revenues unless playing marquee teams.
    • “They only make money from broadcasters if they are hosting England, India and to a tiny extent, Australia.” – Dosmunda (01:51, 08:53)
  • Fans and younger audiences in Africa and Asia prefer faster T20 matches, which are cheaper to stage and attract more viewers (09:45).
    • “In the space of a test match, you can play 4,020s that week... These are realities.” – Dosmunda (08:53)

4. Women’s Cricket: Soaring Investment and New Models

• Audience Growth and Sponsorship:
  • Women’s cricket is a bright spot, with explosive TV numbers and sponsor interest.
    • Example: India’s Women’s World Cup Final pulled in over 185 million viewers (11:26).
  • Brands see high returns investing in women’s sport:
    • “The LPGA say the return on every dollar invested in women’s golf is $7.” – Jessica Howarth (12:14)
• Different Fanbase and Future Formats:
  • The audience is younger, wealthier, and more female; positive perceptions for brands.
  • There’s a debate whether women’s cricket should follow the men’s Test tradition, or pioneer different, more sustainable formats:
    • “We have a chance to create a new blueprint, a new model... Can we have something that really develops the women’s game?” – Jessica Howarth (13:18)

5. The Ashes: Still a Flagship Brand

• Cultural & Commercial Power:

  • The Ashes draws new and existing fans, breaks broadcast records, and sells tickets at a premium (15:00–15:36).
    • “It was front page news... managed to go beyond to wider fans who are less familiar with the game.” – Russell James (15:00)

• Marketing Halo Effect:

  • The Ashes boosts domestic competitions, fan engagement, participation, and other cricket products in England.
    • “The linkage between the Ashes starting the popularity of the Vitality Blast... a bump in boys and girls coming down to their local cricket club.” – Russell James (17:49)

• Test Cricket's Enduring Value:

  • Despite the commercial dominance of T20, certain Test series retain iconic status and drive the sport’s brand.

6. Cricket's Financial Health: A Nuanced Diagnosis

• No Immediate Crisis—But Warning Signs:
  • The game remains buoyant overall, but the future of traditional long-form cricket looks precarious without intervention.
    • “It is not showing reasons which would make you lose sleep immediately, but... unless something is done about it, some elements of the great game... could really start suffering.” – Prakash Warkankar (18:59)
• The Growing Divide:
  • Deep economic rifts remain between cricket’s wealthiest (Big Three) and the rest, threatening the diversity and sustainability of international cricket.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On IPL's Wider Economic Impact:
  “Whether it’s gardeners who beautify the stadium or people who make snack foods... every single one of them has had significant lifts in their business.”
  — Prakash Warkankar (05:36)

• On Hosting Economics for Smaller Nations:
  “It costs them money and so they’ve got to weigh up: are we willing to spend money on hosting teams? That’s why we’ve only seen two test series in South Africa for the whole of the last cycle.”
  — Dosmunda (08:53)

• On Women’s Sport as Smart Investment:
  “There’s a lot of fun stats out right now about the return on investment of brands investing in women’s sport being materially higher than the equivalent for men’s.”
  — Jessica Howarth (12:14)

• On Test Cricket’s Vulnerability:
  “Test cricket and ODI cricket... unless something is done about it, some elements of the great game as we know it could really start suffering big time.”
  — Prakash Warkankar (18:59)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:09] – Introduction & Framing: Is cricket financially healthy?
• [02:24] – The Ashes: Commercial importance and media deals
• [04:04] – IPL’s economic model and origins
• [05:31] – Socioeconomic lift from the IPL through India
• [06:15] – Rise of short-form leagues and decline of Test matches
• [07:11] – South Africa’s choice to suspend home Tests
• [08:53] – Economic realities of hosting internationals
• [11:26] – Growth and investment in women’s cricket
• [13:18] – The case for new formats in the women’s game
• [15:00] – The Ashes as a national and global marketing brand
• [16:32] – Ashes’ value in the streaming content battle
• [18:59] – Final assessment: cricket’s financial present and future

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Tone & Language

The episode mixes analysis, first-hand insights, and candid business talk. The guests balance affection for the traditions of cricket with real-world, sometimes harsh, financial realities. The overall tone is informative but occasionally laced with concern about where economic decisions may be taking the game’s heritage.

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Summary

Cricket stands at a crossroads: awash with money in some corners, facing existential questions in others. If the highs of the IPL and explosively growing women’s cricket showcase the sport’s immense appeal, the struggles of Test cricket and non-elite nations warn of deepening divides. For now, the spectacle—and the money—remain, but the game’s healthiest future may depend on creativity, compromise, and remembering what first drew fans to cricket’s enduring drama.

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Transcript

[Will Bain]

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[Will Bain]

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[Prakash Warkankar]

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[Jessica Howarth]

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[Will Bain]

Hello, I'm Will Bain and welcome to Business Daily on the BBC World Service. In the streaming age, there's never been more investment flowing into global sport. With TV audiences in the billions and rights deals to match, Cricket has very much been part of that growth. And yet a strange but important question continues to hang over one of the world's most watched sports. Just how healthy is it financially?

[Prakash Warkankar]

It is not showing reasons which would make you lose sleep immediately, but there do seem to be signs. Unless something is done about it, some elements of the great game as we know it could really start suffering big time.

[Will Bain]

And is the divide growing between the economic haves and have nots?

[Dosmunda]

They only make money from the broadcasters if they are hosting England, India and to a tiny extent, Australia. So hosting all the other teams doesn't make them any money at all.

[Will Bain]

It costs them money as one of the jewels in global cricket's marketing. Crown returns this week. Today on Business Daily, we'll be asking just how healthy is the business of professional cricket? Cricket a gentleman's game. Respectful, polite. But not when it comes to the Ashes.

[Russell James]

Oh, there you go.

[Will Bain]

143 year feud. Oh yes. Marked by centuries, incredible scenes, collapse and bad blood. This emotions unsurprising because it's Australia versus England. But trust me, this time it's even more than that. England vs Australia returns to TV screens this week for one of cricket's fiercest rivalries and as a result, one of its biggest marketing hooks. Just the fact those ads are for the main rights holders, Harry Potter and Batman owner Warner Bros. Discovery and Rupert Murdoch's Fox Group perhaps gives a sense of the value of this series of cricket matches to big media companies. But as the series returns for its 74th edition, the contest taking place over the next couple of weeks of the Australian summer comes at an interesting time. The Ashes is what is known as Test cricket, a long format of the game played over as many as five days for just one match. And whilst this series has reportedly raked in tens of millions of dollars in TV revenue, the pop for rights for that type of cricket globally is drying up and dwarfed by the shorter T20 version of cricket, which is all over in a few hours. India's Premier League leads the way in that market and was watched by more than a billion household holds earlier this year for its latest annual competition. Streaming and TV rights for the next five years have been sold for a record $6 billion, and the investment bank Houlahan Loki now values the IPL and its franchises at more than $18 billion.

[Prakash Warkankar]

Hi, I'm Prakash Wakanka and I love cricket in every form and I've spent the last 20 odd years been blessed to be able to work with the BBC across its multiple platforms. Besides a little bit of work in All India radio and the ABC, Prakash.

[Will Bain]

Workankar explained more about the IPL's explosive economic growth.

[Prakash Warkankar]

It began in a very American, or maybe even beyond an American style of sports events where there was as much around the game as there was in the game and on the field.

[Will Bain]

And did that mean it brought in different people and actually different companies to the game?

[Prakash Warkankar]

Most certainly. So what the IPL did in 2008, when it began with a huge amount of fanfare and rasmataz, is it brought Bollywood front and center to the cricket arena, as it were. It brought music, parties, entertainment, clothing and colors and designs of playing kits which would never been seen in India before. And all of that and the novelty of it and the way it was marketed as an evening out for the family. So it became an entertaining evening with cricket as its ostensible centerpiece. It is also coincided in many ways with the economic growth of India and all of that sort of plays into that storyline beautifully.

[Will Bain]

And that, he says, has trickled down through the Indian economy today, whether it's.

[Prakash Warkankar]

Gardeners who beautify the stadium around, whether it is housekeeping staff, whether it is people who make snack foods on the site sides of the road, every single one of them has had significant lifts in their business. This is the non cricket side. And on the cricket side, places where maybe they didn't even have a decent hockey ground back in the day are today boasting of academies. Boys and girls coming out to these academies and playing the game. Stories of, you know, young people, men and women who came from backgrounds where they probably would have been destined to work in a coal mine or pull a rickshaw or. Those are the kind of stories of heroes and heroines who've come through.

[Will Bain]

The IPL's success has seen a whole circuit of short form franchise based leagues spring up around the world. From Australia to the Caribbean and South Africa.

[Jessica Howarth]

It's electrifying.

[Russell James]

Friends and family, side by side.

[Will Bain]

Welcome to the incredible Betway SA25. I don't think there's anything better. And as that supply of more and more cricket has spread, so demand for those longer test matches has waned and with it the enthusiasm for meeting the costs associated with staging the games. It raises a question that perhaps goes beyond cricket and in fact sport to the TV streaming content wars that of course propel all of this more broadly. When is less more? South Africa has already come up with an interesting answer to that. Its men's team won't play a long form test match in South Africa for the next 18 months. For Dosmunda, Southern Africa Correspondent for the website ESPNcriKinfo, explain more.

[Dosmunda]

Well, a couple of reasons. South Africa are on tours, so they are finishing up a tour in India which will only conclude in mid December and then when they come back home there's not a lot of time. So that's one reason that there are no home test matches this summer. The other reason is that in 2027 South Africa will co host the 50 over World cup with Zimbabwe and Namibia. And pitches are being relayed, drop in pitches are being developed at certain grounds around the country, stadiums are being upgraded, new floodlights put in, all sorts of renovations. So South Africa don't want a situation like what occurred in the US in the New York venue of the T20 World cup where the drop in pitch proved very problematic. They want to give the pitchers time to settle, they want to test them out.

[Will Bain]

So lots of this for perfectly reasonable and very sensible in fact reasons. And yet as you know, it's not stopped getting people talking, has it? And about what impact it might have if the men's test team doesn't play a test match in South Africa for a year and a half.

[Dosmunda]

Yeah, I mean look People will definitely talk. And I think the loudest voices are coming from outside South Africa, where there isn't that much understanding for the economic realities of what goes on here. If I'm being completely honest, for South African cricket fans, who will have an SA20 over the peak summer period, they actually are perfectly happy with that. Test cricket is not hugely well attended in South Africa for economic reasons, for timing reasons, for a geographic location of stadium reasons. And so really, I don't think inside the country it's that big of a deal. And then they come home and they play Australia, England and Bangladesh in a packed summer, 26, 27. So if anybody's feeling like they're missing out on Test cricket, it's just like, wait 12 months and it'll all be here.

[Will Bain]

Do you use that phrase economic reality for those, spell that out for our listeners?

[Dosmunda]

Well, there's several factors. The one is that the South African rand is a weak currency. So the South African rand is 24, 25 to the pound, 17, 18 to the dollar. And that means that everything costs that much more. The other thing is that hosting test cricket is really expensive. It can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. So Zimbabwe is one example. They say it costs $500,000 to host a test match, which is massive amounts of money. You know, you're paying for hotel, accommodation, flights for the opposition team, the actual facility and then all the costs that come with the broadcast and hosting and so on. Of course, you do get broadcast fees, but the South African reality is that they only make money from the broadcasters if they are hosting England, India and to a tiny extent, Australia. So hosting all the other teams doesn't make them any money at all. It costs them money and so they've got a way up. Are we willing to spend money on host teams? That's why we've only seen two test series in South Africa for the whole of the last cycle. It saves you money to just play two tests and in the space of a test match, you can play 4,020s that week. So these are the realities. And for the viewers and the fans, you know, the numbers don't lie. They tell us that these competitions are getting huge numbers of viewers, lots of social media engagement. So, you know, I'm of the generation that's slightly older and, and maybe prefers, you know, long drawn out types of contests, but, you know, that's not the world and Africa in particular and Asia, young populations who want sort of quick fixes.

[Will Bain]

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[Will Bain]

I'm Will Bain and today in the week, cricket's Ashes series returns, we're looking at the financial health of the global game. One area where there is no question that the shortest form of cricket has supercharged the finances is in the women's game. Jubilant scenes across India after their women's team defeated South Africa in the recent World cup final. It was watched by an estimated TV audience well in excess of 185 million people. Crowds, sponsorship and increasingly, private equity cash has headed into the women's game in record amounts. As Jessica Howarth, a founding partner in Sphere of Partners, an investor in women's sports teams and leagues, explained, you are.

[Jessica Howarth]

Seeing more and more the broader business landscape getting involved in women's cricket. So you're seeing larger sponsorships in the women's game because they're seeing the return on investment that they can get. There's a lot of fun stats out right now about the return on investment of brands investing in women's sport being materially higher than the equivalent for men's In a lot of cases, the ones that I always go back to is the LPGA say the return on every dollar invested in women's golf is $7, which is pretty impressive. And it goes to the type of fan of women's sports being slightly different. A lot of the time it's more female. There's a younger audience, a more wealthy audience. Also, the brand value associated with a sponsor of women's sport. People think fondly of brands that sponsored women's sports because they see it as doing the right thing and what about.

[Will Bain]

The longer form of the game then that we're sort of pulling out here. Jessica, obviously there's been less of it. Do you think it would be investable if there was more of it? Or is it actually it's just the way that all crickets going that it's that shorter format is where people see making the most investment sense.

[Jessica Howarth]

Yeah, I think Cass, cricket is. It's obviously for the more advanced or mature or purist, whichever one you want to say, fans of the sport. It's not for the entry level fans in the same way. And more of the fans of women's cricket, aside from those who play it, are at that entry stage. And so I think it will be a while before Test cricket is investable. And when I say investable, I mean something that will produce a return in the near term. In our world, we work on sort of a five year time horizon, but whether that's five or ten year or plus, it's a bit difficult. I think one thing that we need to do is take that step back and think about why are we focused on test cricket in the women's game. Is it because it truly produces a better cricketer and it develops the women's game more, or is it because we have an association and affinity from it, from the men's game? And actually it comes from that. And in that sense, why do we need to be attached to it? Because we have the chance to create a new blueprint, a new model and create something different that is potentially more sustainable and that is right for our, both our fans and our players. And so it's a really interesting question to say, what would we actually like this model to look like that can take the best of all worlds, really? Can we have something that really develops the women's game? And yeah, maybe the men's will follow it in due course when they see it's actually a lot more sustainable and the calendar is less congested, but you're getting a bit of everything that you want.

[Will Bain]

So how important is the England Australia Test series off the field for the global game? Russell James is a former head of marketing at the governing body, the England and Wales Cricket Board, now runs his own sponsorship consulting firm, Basballers Consulting.

[Russell James]

I think if you looked at the 2023 Ashes that took place in England, it was front page news. You know, that series, both the men's and the women's series actually attracted your obvious cricket fans that will always engage in the summer of cricket, but also managed to go beyond to wider fans who are less Familiar or less frequently engaging with the game. And I think the rivalry that exists supports that. You know, the hype that comes, all of those things play into set of assets as a governing body that you can then use to market the game.

[Will Bain]

And what about as a marketing man, the deals then that come with that, do those stack up?

[Russell James]

Everything flows. Right. So the broadcast numbers were a record for sky and I believe BBC at the time packed stadia and many of the days of cricket were sold well in advance at a premium ticket price as well. And then, yes, you're right, from a sponsorship perspective, you're able to drive a premium both in terms of the volume of brands that are interested to be part of that sort of cultural moment in society as well as within sport, but also a premium on the actual value of those deals, you know, within that summer in particular. So, yeah, all of that sort of points from a revenue perspective and an interest perspective to positive outcomes.

[Will Bain]

And then for the game as a whole, then internationally, evidently between the two countries, as you've laid out in the numbers, it matters and it matters for the game there. But in the kind of, and it is now, isn't it, the way that streaming's gone, a global battle for entertainment content and that cricket is in that. Where do you think the Ashes, England and Australia in Test match cricket sits in that kind of battle as an entertainment brand for marketers?

[Russell James]

Well, I think it's one of cricket's best weapons in that battle as you to use your language beyond the live content itself. But, you know, the nature of cricket being very sort of clippable, shareable, increases its access, especially across digital content platforms. I mean, we would see, as the east coast of America and west coast of America were waking up to their respective time zones, huge uptake in people visiting our YouTube channel to download the latest highlights and clips of what was happening within that day's play. The beauty of test cricket is that you have hopefully five days in which to build that narrative over.

[Will Bain]

And how for cricket then as a game, again, we're talking kind of, I know, very businessy language, which in and of itself, right, is what some people get upset about, that the whole point of Test cricket is that it's the purest form of the game, the form of the game that's the hardest, the one that they think should be protected, whether it makes the most money or not. But actually in kind of modern sport, it is about the bottom line. And so, as a result, does an England, Australia Ashes series still drive other bits of the game that Is people to buy TV subscriptions to watch domestic competitions or other international cricket? Or is that now shifting so much that it is the Indian Premier league? It is T20 cricket that is doing a lot of that driving. Yeah.

[Russell James]

I think in the context of English cricket and English audiences, the Ashes in particular is by far and away the most dominant cricket product or sub brand or whatever, whatever word you want to use within cricket much more than the IPL was within this country. If we go back to 2023, the linkage between the Ashes starting the popularity of the Vitality Blast domestic competition, you know, we saw significant uptake in both viewership and people going along to those matches as a consequence of the halo that came from the Ashes. Partly because of timing. You don't see that with ipl, probably in this country, the IPL is reaching a different audience to the one that international cricket and specifically the Ashes is reaching. So it's a very powerful tool in driving the overall halo, both within a fan experience, but also participation. You know, the start of various cricket seasons or ECB programs line up typically to the Ashes as well. And you see a bump in boys and girls coming down to their local cricket club or their school to want to replicate what they're seeing play out within Ashes, cricket in particular.

[Will Bain]

So as cricket steps back into the media spotlight again in the coming days, how healthy is the global game? Prakash Warkinker, Again, I think the overall.

[Prakash Warkankar]

Health of the game as a direct and short answer is that it is not showing reasons which would make you lose sleep immediately. But there do seem to be signs of areas where unless something is done about it, some elements of the great game as we know it could really start suffering big time. Test cricket and ODI cricket both, I think in that category at the moment.

[Will Bain]

Prakash Workenka there, bringing us just about to the close of this edition of Business Daily. The producer was Matt Lines and remember to never miss an episode. Do subscribe to our podcast, just search for BBC Business D.