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Cricket PlayersOver dependence on India-Pakistan economics hurting cricket
India-Pakistan cricket matches are highly lucrative, worth $180 million, despite India's dominance. Political ties impact future valuations.
Mumbai: India versus Pakistan is one of the most lopsided rivalries in ICC world events. India enjoys a 17-4 record, 14-1 if you stick to ODI and T20 World Cups. This imbalance, though, has no impact on the commercial worth of the subcontinental faceoff. This Sunday’s India-Pakistan group fixture is known to be worth $180 million (approx. over ₹1600 crore). That’s over 20% of the overall ICC revenue pot (media rights and gate receipts) of the 2026 T20 World Cup.
While the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) was orchestrating the ‘will they, won’t they’ drama on playing India, insiders were certain it was nothing more than political leveraging and that the match would happen.
“We cancelled none of our pre-bookings,” one tournament ticketing partner told HT.
For PCB, liability arising out of giving the India match a miss would have been many times more than their $34.5 million annual ICC earnings, too steep a price to pay.
Similarly, ICC could ill-afford to take a hasty call, not just because of the economics of this mega match, but due to the precedent it would set. By virtue of the 2026 World Cup being the only one in the 2024-27 rights cycle having India as co-hosts, its value is known to be worth $890 million out of the $3 billion. That’s just for the Indian market. Some market experts dispute this number as an ODI World Cup has more advertising inventory, but the premium is on account of a favourable time zone for all matches –-Sri Lanka is the co-host—and room for better commercial activation for the broadcaster.
A breakdown of the economics of an India-Pakistan clash in an ICC event would show India matches constituting 80% of media rights revenue. With India playing four league matches, three in the Super 8, and assuming they qualify for the semis and the final, that would mean about $712 million for the nine matches. Most subject experts confirm an India-Pakistan tie is double that of an average India World Cup match, making it worth $160 million.
An India-Pakistan match being worth more than India-Australia or India-South Africa is due to a complex convergence of geopolitics, nationalism and economics.
Scarcity of matches between the two neighbours, constant political hostilities, and war-ridden history mean even the occasional cricket viewer tunes in. Last year’s high-stakes Champions Trophy league match between the them generated over 26 billion minutes of watch-time on TV, bettering 19.5 billion viewing minutes in the 2023 World Cup, according to ICC data.
Some believe India-Pakistan match valuations are overplayed for commercial interest. “Today half the broadcaster’s money comes from subscriptions. It’s not like earlier when 90% came only from advertising. And one is not going to unsubscribe Hotstar because there is no India-Pakistan match,” said Harish Thawani, former owner of Neo Sports who also has engaged in multiple ICC biddings.
“There are some who may want to only buy advertising time for the India-Pakistan match and are willing to pay full premium. Otherwise, ad slots are booked phase-wise with India league round, India Super 8s and knockout matches.” The league phase advertising would be heavily impacted if there was no India-Pakistan match.
While India-Pakistan viewership is a safe bet, recently there has been a greater spike in viewership in the knockout rounds of ICC events with India consistently going the distance. The 2023 ODI World Cup final against Australia became the most watched ICC match in India followed by the semi-final against New Zealand in that tournament. The 2025 Champions Trophy final between India and New Zealand ranked third.
The India-Pakistan match in the current rights cycle holds a high premium also because the broadcaster has overpaid. In late 2024, the Asia Cup media rights went for $170 million. That’s for four men’s events which include likely eight India-Pakistan matches – add four more if the arch-rivals make the final. This sharp difference in per-match value of an India-Pakistan match from an ICC event to Asia Cup—$160 to $20 or less—is down to the difference in context of the two events, but largely due to the changed broadcast scenario following the merger of Star and Jio.
With delicate diplomacy, ICC has salvaged the match and saved itself from legal wrangles with PCB. But the future of what was once a sure-shot money-spinner in a World Cup could face more headwinds if strained India-Pakistan political ties continue to cast a shadow.
“If I am a bidder and there is no guaranteed India-Pakistan match before knockout rounds in an ICC event, my valuation matrix will definitely change,” said Rajesh Sethi, media, sports and entertainment lead at PwC India. “India-Pakistan matches are at the pinnacle of the revenue pyramid and there will be an impact on my ROI ability both in subscription and advertising.”
Thawani disagrees. “There is no such thing as a valuation of one game. If it was one entire India-Pakistan bilateral series in a cycle, it would have been highly valuable,” he said.
With future media rights valuations under stress, world cricket would be a better place if the T20 revolution threw up more nations, more competitive matches, and more narratives to leverage for the stakeholders. Even the India cricket market would want to mature from being over-reliant on a rivalry that’s repeatedly failed to live up to the hype on the field.
