Over eighteen years after its first ball was bowled, the IPL has become something no cricket administrator planned for and no rival league has replicated — a commercial institution whose value compounds faster than the criticism directed at it.
The fatigue narrative gathering pace around the 2026 season sits awkwardly against a set of market signals pointing firmly in the opposite direction. Franchise transactions have closed at figures that would be extraordinary in any sport, institutional capital from India’s largest conglomerates continues to flow toward the league, and audience numbers across platforms have moved in a direction that makes the decline argument difficult to sustain.
IPL Chairman Arun Dhumal, speaking to The Times of India, made clear he has little patience for a conversation he believes the market has already settled.
Valuation growth that no Indian enterprise has matched
The question of how to value the IPL has become a recurring flashpoint, with some observers suggesting the league’s commercial peak may already be behind it. Dhumal was unequivocal in response.
“Infinite. You can compare the valuations now with what the original value was in 2008. It has grown about 20x in the last 18 years. Can you name any business or any enterprise which has given you that kind of return? IPL is the No. 1 make-in-India brand. Bigger conglomerates like Mittals and Birlas have come in now. IPL is a commercial venture. Whosoever finds value in it, you would want to have a piece of it,” Dhumal said.
The arrival of diversified industrial houses — whose core businesses span steel, cement, financial services and consumer goods and whose private ownership enables long investment horizons – signals a conviction about the league’s trajectory that extends well beyond cricket.
Franchise transactions reframe the media rights debate
The secondary market for IPL franchise stakes has delivered two of the most significant transactions in Asian sports business in recent memory. Royal Challengers Bengaluru was acquired by an incoming consortium at US$1.78 billion, as previously reported by cricexec, while Rajasthan Royals changed hands at US$1.63 billion, as previously reported by cricexec — both closing at a moment when scepticism around the next media rights cycle has been at its most audible.
“Just look at the valuations we have had for the Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru wherein the request for stakes sale and new buyers coming in. If there were apprehensions about the valuation of the next media rights cycle, you wouldn’t have got the kind of valuations that have been predicted or given to both the teams. I am very hopeful that when we have the media rights cycle for the next five years, it is going to be much better than what we have as of now. It would go higher for sure, I am very confident,” Dhumal added when speaking to TOI.
Buyers entering at these price points are not making a short-term bet. At US$1.6 billion and above, the investment thesis depends entirely on the next broadcast deal delivering materially higher returns than the current cycle — which means sophisticated investors have likely already drawn their own conclusions about where IPL media rights are headed.
Viewership data cuts through the fatigue argument
The declining interest narrative has circulated with particular intensity during the 2026 season, amplified by periodic dips in overnight ratings on individual match days. Dhumal pointed to a broader dataset.
“Data speaks for itself. In the JioStar report that came out recently, you can see the kind of attraction this year also. It’s been phenomenal. The digital reach has grown by 15% and TV reach has grown by 25%. The regional language watch time has increased by about 42% vis-a-vis last season. In between, there has been an odd off day. IPL has already crossed 1.1 billion views. Only based on the feedback, I can say that it’s been a phenomenal season and it will keep on going,” he noted.
A 42% rise in regional language watch time is not a marginal improvement — it points to the IPL actively deepening its penetration into markets where the next generation of cricket consumption is being formed. Combined with a 25% rise in television reach, the figures suggest the league is simultaneously growing its digital footprint and defending its traditional broadcast base.
Expansion ceiling set but the window remains shut until 2027
The structural question hanging over the IPL’s medium-term future is not commercial — it is the calendar. The BCCI has appetite for a larger tournament, but the space to deliver one has not yet materialised.
“The number of games can go up to 94 in case we have to have nine home and nine away games with the 10-team structure. But unfortunately, given the bilateral commitments that we have till 2027, there is no window or scope wherein we can increase the number of games. The idea was to increase it gradually from 74 to 84 and then to 94. But since we are tied up with so many events and bilaterals happening, it was not possible in this bilateral cycle. Hopefully when the next bilateral cycle gets planned, if we get a bigger window, then we may think of increasing the number of games,” Dhumal stated.
IPL franchise ownership groups have meanwhile been deploying capital into T20 competitions across South Africa, the UAE, the US, and the Caribbean — extending the league’s commercial ecosystem into markets where bilateral cricket has struggled to generate comparable returns. With the ICC’s scheduling framework due for review from 2027, the conditions for the IPL’s next expansion push may finally begin to align, and the commercial groundwork to support it is already firmly in place.
