Apart from the English players that is?
The British players will take part next year. We only wanted Dmitri Mascarenhas due to the six sixes that Yuvraj hit off him. Flintoff and Pieterson are in fact upset with the English Cricket board as they have lost close to a million dollars.

Now it will be difficult for ICL. Mohammed Yousuf wants out. We have all the current players. Jacob Oram, Stephen Fleming are playing in IPL. Shane Bond is in talks to switch sides.

Taking away WSG's (World Sport Group) payout commitment of $ 4 million for Year 1, $ 55 million is what you have to generate. How has it been thus far?
We've already signed up all the main (five) sponsors. The first year I expect to recover $50 million.

Does Sony expect to make a profit through the first five years of this deal at least?
In the first five years we will make $100 million in profit. In the next five we will make half a billion. My ad sales will treble after five years. This will be my going away present for Sony (laughs).

How is it working out financially for the franchises?
The payout from us was worked out backwards by the BCCI. $59 million a year was what the BCCI needed to get from us.

If the teams have to have a $ 5 million player budget, if they have to have a $ 6-7 million payout for the franchise fee. If they have a $ 12 million basic expenditure, plus an additional $ 2 million as overhead costs, that makes $ 14 million as their overall cost for running the franchise. They must recover from broadcast $ 8 million, from central sponsorship $ 3 million, and they must recover another $ 5 million from local sponsorships and gate moneys. So that is the model. The model is working perfectly.

The teams are now solvent. After what comes to them from broadcast fees and central sponsorship revenues, the teams now have to make up $2 million They are only eight crore (Rs. 80 million) short. In gate money they can make a crore and a half. Then you consider local sponsors. SRK has gone berserk getting the likes of Tag Heuer to be associated with Knight Riders. Our suggestion is that franchises give their shirt sponsors a banner on their site as well as place on their merchandise. So sponsors will see value beyond just the live matches as their branding gets carried through different activities that the franchise is doing.

Besides websites, the franchises should also work out deals with mobile operators. They have the rights to mobile clips for their seven home matches. They could even start their own channel after a few years.

But as per calculation, aside from Kolkata, which has broken even, teams will suffer losses?
Teams are prepared to carry a $ 3 million loss this year. That is because on the back of the success of the first edition they will be able to get in local sponsors going forward. Also you have to consider that for a team like Bangalore, for instance, it is a branding exercise where Royal Challenge gets a big push. How do you tell what is a profit and what is a loss?

Will franchises sell out?
Jaipur, Hyderabad might sell. The others will stick with it as the value will go up over time.

Having said that, I believe that Anil Ambani offered $100 million for Jaipur, which was refused. There is no problem in making the investment when people like Lachlan Murdoch are involved.

How do you see corporate involvement helping infrastructure and players?
They will look for new players in the catchment areas. Today a domestic player might get Rs. 2 million. If however they do well then they could fetch Rs. 20 million. So older players might get shed. The younger players will play for IPL and if they do not play for the country it does not matter. Eventually two more teams will be added and the tournament will then last for two months. This will give more opportunities for domestic players.

Besides websites the franchises should also work out deals with mobile operators. They have the rights to mobile clips for their seven home matches. They could even start their own channel after a few years. Manchester United has their own channel after all.

Can other countries start their own leagues?
They could but where is the money for them? Modi has the money power. Who will bid half a billion dollars for a cricket league in other countries? Australia, England cannot do it. The Pakistan and Sri Lanka boards are in fact hoping that IPL will be the way for their players to make money.

Is the league format the way forward for other sports in India?
Yes! A private league format is the only way for corporate sponsorships to roll in. In fact ESPN made a mistake with their hockey league PHL. They should have done it in the same way as IPL was done which is getting corporates to buy teams. Even ICL did not do this. There is only one owner there. There is no board backing. One party has to do everything.

With IPL you have the power of 10. Sony, BCCI and the eight franchises are each putting in marketing efforts. The noise level gets multiplied. SRK only cares for Kolkatta. The stake is so high that advertisers feel that it has to succeed. If PHL had done that then ESPN would have been able to short circuit the Indian hockey federation.

I would say that soccer will reach an inflection point in 2010. The TV bids for the soccer World Cup are at $32 million. In 2006 ESPN paid $ 8 million. By 2014 the bids would have crossed $100 million.

After the 2010 World Cup happens it would be a good time to set up a league. Major players would have been showcased to the Indian public. During June-July there is no international fixture. There are seven centres which have an interest in soccer. You could do a deal with EPL so that their players come here during their off season. You can also bring Brazilian players to play here during their off season.

Cricket, F1, Golf, football, hockey are the sports that have value.