“Rupert Murdoch became my second-biggest enemy”: Lalit Modi reveals f…

London [UK], June 4 (ANI): Former Indian Premier League (IPL) Commissioner Lalit Modi has claimed that media mogul Rupert Murdoch became his “second-biggest enemy" after the cancellation of the Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20) in the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. toffler.lol

Speaking to ANI in London, Modi recalled the difficult circumstances following the November 26, 2008, terrorist attacks in Mumbai, which forced the cancellation of what could have been the first edition of the CLT20 tournament that was scheduled to be held in December that year.

“Rupert Murdoch became my second-biggest enemy. Because I sold my Champions League (CLT20) rights to Rupert Murdoch, and that story has already been said," Lalit said.

The inaugural CLT20 was originally slated to take place from December 3 to 10, 2008. However, following the terror attacks in Mumbai, the tournament was first postponed and later officially cancelled after organisers failed to identify a suitable window. The competition eventually debuted in September 2009.

Lalit claimed that despite the cancellation, broadcasters remained contractually obligated to honour their commitments.

“I cancelled Champions League (2008). They lost a few hundred million dollars. But they still had to pay us, because the minute the team touches down, the contract is live. So the contract becomes viable. Rupert tried to make me cancel the contract even when I left. And paid me hundreds of millions of dollars to cancel the contract. I could have taken that money, and I did. But I made another enemy," he said.

Reflecting on the challenges he faced during and after his tenure in cricket administration, Lalit Modi claimed powerful adversaries made it impossible for him to continue fighting.

“I had multiple strong enemies against me, and when you have such strong enemies against you, you can’t fight it. So you just sit back and just let it go," he added.

Murdoch’s media empire was closely associated with the CLT20 through ESPN STAR Sports, which had secured the tournament’s global commercial, marketing and broadcasting rights under a long-term deal. The competition was envisioned as cricket’s equivalent of football’s UEFA Champions League, bringing together leading domestic T20 franchises from around the world.

Despite significant financial backing, the tournament struggled to sustain viewership outside India and was eventually discontinued by the BCCI in 2015.

Lalit Modi is currently serving a lifetime ban imposed by the BCCI after being found guilty of misconduct, indiscipline and financial irregularities following investigations into the early years of the IPL. (ANI)

(This content is sourced from a syndicated feed and is published as received. The Tribune assumes no responsibility or liability for its accuracy, completeness, or content.)

For years, sports broadcasting in India operated on a simple premise: acquire premium rights at any cost, build audience scale, and monetisation would eventually follow. With the news of Zee acquiring FIFA rights that era is perhaps over. As a matter of fact, this declaration is actually based on a smaller story this week. JioStar has reduced its provision for losses on sports contracts by 31%, from ₹25,760 crore to ₹17,742 crore. That single number tells us more about the future of sports broadcasting than any rights announcement. Not only is the old era over, the new model will be built on value niches.

The traditional sports broadcasting model was built on scarcity. A broadcaster would acquire exclusive rights, distribute them through television, sell subscriptions and advertising, and recover costs over time. Today, however, audiences are fragmented across television, streaming, social media, YouTube highlights, creator content and short-form video. Attention is no longer monopolised by the rights holder and this has fundamentally altered the economics of sports.

The reduction in JioStar’s sports rights loss provision suggests that the merged Reliance-Disney entity is becoming more disciplined about monetisation. This is important because JioStar controls some of the biggest properties in Indian sport, including the IPL, ICC events and major international cricket rights.

Efficiency in managing a sports broadcast business today is a function of six levers:

1. Better advertising yields
2. Smarter subscription bundles
3. Greater digital monetisation
4. Regional language expansion
5. Commerce and sponsorship integration
6. Creator-led engagement ecosystems

The future broadcaster however will look less like a television company and more like a sports platform. Unlike cricket rights, which have become prohibitively expensive, FIFA presents an opportunity to build a sports ecosystem at a more manageable acquisition cost. Zee now has access to 39 FIFA events through 2034, including the 2026 and 2030 FIFA World Cups and the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

Rather than treating FIFA as a one-off event, Zee appears to be creating permanent sports infrastructure. The channels provide inventory for future acquisitions across football, kabaddi, combat sports, badminton and other emerging properties. In that sense, this is like acquiring the rights for a major reality show like Big Boss or KBC that on a standalone basis may not generate profits but on an aggregate basis brings value to the table.

Whether Zee is able to do this or not, the next decade may not belong solely to mega-rights such as the IPL. Instead, broadcasters may focus on what I call “value rights” properties that generate passionate audiences without carrying crippling acquisition costs. Besides FIFA tournaments, this could include women’s sport, regional leagues, combat sports, Kabaddi, Padel, pickleball and maybe youth sports festivals at a community level.

The economics of these properties can often be more attractive because the cost base is lower while audience engagement remains strong. Platforms will need to fundamentally reengineer both the structure and skill sets needed to make this work because the fundamental tenet is then about carrying the ‘stories’ and not necessarily the ‘telecast’.

Going forward, rights inflation will continue, but buyers will be far more selective. Every acquisition will be measured against realistic monetisation opportunities. Television remains critical, but increasingly the economics will be driven by digital subscriptions, data, targeted advertising and commerce opportunities around sport. The social platforms will become the determinant of success and the winners will be those who can create year-round engagement through creators, podcasts, communities, gaming and live experiences.

Also Read: AI and the new threat to Sport

The post Sports Broadcasters will need to start behaving like Sports Platforms appeared first on Sports News Portal | Revsportz.

India batter and Chennai Super Kings skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad posted a short and sweet message to wife Utkarsha on the occasion of their third wedding anniversary on Wednesday.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ruturaj Gaikwad (@ruutu.131)

Sharing this picture of the couple on Instagram, Gaikwad captioned the post: “Found my forever in you.” The couple tied the knot in 2023 during a private ceremony at a resort in Mahabaleshwar.

આઈપીએલ 2026 (IPL 2026) ના સમાપન સાથે જ ભારતીય ક્રિકેટ જગતમાં મોટા ફેરફારોના સંકેતો મળી રહ્યા છે. ભારતીય ટીમને ટી૨૦ ફોર્મેટમાં નવી ઊંચાઈઓ પર લઈ જનાર સ્ટાર બેટર સૂર્યકુમાર યાદવ પાસેથી કેપ્ટનશીપ છીનવાઈ શકે છે. આટલું જ નહીં, છેલ્લા કેટલાક સમયથી ખરાબ ફોર્મ સામે ઝઝૂમી રહેલા સૂર્યાને આયર્લેન્ડ અને ઇંગ્લેન્ડ સામેના આગામી પ્રવાસ માટે ભારતીય ટીમમાંથી પણ બહાર રાખવામાં આવે તેવી પ્રબળ શક્યતા છે. BCCI હવે સંપૂર્ણપણે નવા વિઝન સાથે મેદાનમાં ઉતરવાની તૈયારી કરી રહ્યું છે અને ટૂંક સમયમાં જ ભારતીય ટી૨૦ ટીમના નવા કેપ્ટનની જાહેરાત કરવામાં આવી શકે છે.

ગૌતમ ગંભીર સાથે ચર્ચા બાદ BCCI નો મોટો નિર્ણ

BCCIના એક ઉચ્ચ અધિકારીના જણાવ્યા અનુસાર, ચીફ સિલેક્ટર, બોર્ડના સભ્યો અને ટીમ મેનેજમેન્ટે મુખ્ય કોચ ગૌતમ ગંભીર સાથે લાંબી ચર્ચા કર્યા બાદ આ કડક નિર્ણય લીધો છે. 'ધ ઇન્ડિયન એક્સપ્રેસ' સાથેની વાતચીતમાં અધિકારીએ જણાવ્યું કે, "સૂર્યકુમાર યાદવની આગેવાનીમાં ભલે ટીમે શાનદાર પ્રદર્શન કર્યું હોય, પરંતુ તેના વર્તમાન ફોર્મ અને ભવિષ્યની રણનીતિને જોતાં મેનેજમેન્ટે હવે આગળ વધવાનો (નવા ખેલાડીઓને તક આપવાનો) સમય આવી ગયો હોવાનું સ્વીકાર્યું છે. આગામી સિરીઝ માટે તેની પસંદગી નહીં થાય અને આ અંગે સૂર્યાને પણ ટૂંક સમયમાં જાણ કરી દેવામાં આવશે."

કેપ્ટનશિપના કારણે સૂર્ય કુમારનું પ્રદર્શન કથળ્યું

વર્ષ ૨૦૨૪માં રોહિત શર્માની કેપ્ટનશીપ હેઠળ ભારતે વેસ્ટ ઈન્ડિઝમાં ટી૨૦ વર્લ્ડ કપ જીત્યો હતો, જેના પછી રોહિતે આ ફોર્મેટમાંથી નિવૃત્તિ લીધી અને કમાન સૂર્યકુમાર યાદવને સોંપવામાં આવી હતી. જો કે, કેપ્ટન બન્યા પછી સૂર્યાની બેટિંગ ગ્રાફ સતત નીચે આવ્યો છે. છેલ્લા બે વર્ષથી તે મોટા સ્કોર બનાવવામાં અસમર્થ રહ્યો છે. તાજેતરમાં પૂરી થયેલી આઈપીએલ 2026 માં પણ તેનું પ્રદર્શન ઘણું નિરાશાજનક રહ્યું હતું. જો કે તેણે રાજસ્થાન રોયલ્સ સામેની છેલ્લી મેચમાં અડધી સદી ફટકારી હતી, પરંતુ સમગ્ર સીઝન દરમિયાન તે રન બનાવવા માટે સંઘર્ષ કરતો જોવા મળ્યો હતો.

ટીમ ઇન્ડિયાનું આગામી T20 શેડ્યૂલ

આ મહિનાના અંતમાં ભારતીય ટીમ એક ખૂબ જ વ્યસ્ત ટી૨૦ શેડ્યૂલ શરૂ કરવા જઈ રહી છે, જેમાં તદ્દન નવી ટીમ અને નવા કેપ્ટનની રણનીતિ જોવા મળશે. આયર્લેન્ડ પ્રવાસમાં ભારત બે ટી૨૦ આંતરરાષ્ટ્રીય મેચોની સિરીઝ રમશે. જયારે ઇંગ્લેન્ડ પ્રવાસમાં આયર્લેન્ડ પછી ભારતીય ટીમ ઇંગ્લેન્ડ સામે પાંચ મેચની મોટી ટી૨૦ શ્રેણી માટે મેદાનમાં ઉતરશે.

The Gujarat Titans pulled off a brilliant resurgence in the 2026 IPL season to reach the finals, where they were beaten by the Royal Challengers Bengaluru by five wickets.

They made their way to the final on top of brilliant performances with bat and ball. The star-studded top three of skipper Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, and Jos Buttler once more did the bulk of the scoring, while the bowling attack was dominated by hit-the-deck specialists bowling Test-match lengths. They have had problems which plagued them all season, which will need to be addressed ahead of the 2027 season, if they are to make it one step further and lift the trophy.

Here are 3 changes Gujarat Titans should make ahead of IPL 2027:

3. Add more domestic firepower to their middle order

The Titans' top three have done most of their heavy lifting with the bat. Openers Gill and Sudharsan both scored over 700 runs, and Buttler once more had a 500-plus run season. But one area where they have been found wanting is their lack of runs from the middle order. Washington Sundar contributed with scores at vital junctures, but outside of his runs, no one in the middle order was able to offer any significant resistance.

The Titans could well do with more domestic firepower in their middle order. They did give a few opportunities to Nishant Sindhu this year, and he did show some potential but did not convert his starts into anything significant. They will need batters who can not just hold fort when wickets fall at the top but also add to the score or pile on more runs on top of the platform set by the top three.

2. Use Washington Sundar's bowling more often

Washington Sundar has been one of the better performers of the Titans' side cast, albeit in a middle-order role with the bat. He has scored 377 runs at a strike rate of 150.19, contributing to the team with three half-centuries. An all-rounder by trade, Washington has been limited to mostly a batter-only role, with his bowling being used as a match-up option when there are left-handers on both ends.

Washington has honed his craft of bowling with the white ball in the shortest format. He is a reliable bowler for the national team, and his career economy of 7.10 in the format and 7.76 in the IPL shows that he can be used as a reliable option to hold an end and control the run flow. He is also a smart operator with multiple variations in his repertoire and has bowled in all phases of the innings. His use of the ball would give the Titans an extra option to construct their attack around.

1. Get more out of Jason Holder, the all-rounder

Jason Holder was one of the revelations of the 2026 season. Coming into the squad midway through, the big West Indies all-rounder became a mainstay for the Titans, bowling in the middle and death overs. He would build on the platform set by the new ball pair of Kagiso Rabada and Mohammed Siraj, troubling the batters with his hard lengths. He picked up 17 wickets in 11 matches, bowling at an economy rate of 7.56.

While Holder's contributions with the ball were vital to the Titans' success, he was almost limited to a finisher role with the bat. Holder has time and again proved that he is not just a six-hitter with the bat but has the technique and stroke play to hold an innings together. In a season where the Titans have, on occasion, needed a stabiliser who can also score runs and boundaries in the middle order, Holder's curbed role with the bat leaves a lot of unanswered questions.