India To Spend $347 Mil For Local Cricket

Indian cricket's governing body will spend $347m on improving facilities for the game across the country, including installing flood lights at every stadium over the next one year.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has already sanctioned 16 billion rupees ($347m) for cricket associations of all states, BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi said.

He is here to attend a tri-series tournament starting on Tuesday, featuring Australia, India and the West Indies.

Until now, domestic associations depended on revenue from matches played in their jurisdictions to fund development programmes. But because there are so many venues in the country of over 1 billion people, matches at one place were few and far between, resulting in low revenues, Modi said.

BCCI is one of the richest sporting bodies in the world, thanks to the massive revenues from television broadcasting rights for games involving India where cricketers enjoy a cult-like following.