'Unhappy' franchisees to discuss IPL's unexpected prize-money cut

'We are unhappy that the play-off standing fund has been halved. We were not consulted'

The eight IPL franchisees, who are unhappy with the BCCI's decision to halve the prize money corpus to ₹ 25 crore, will soon meet to decide the course of action over the board's 'unexpected' move.

While the prize money to be distributed among the top-four teams stays at ₹ 50 crore, the play-off standing fund to be distributed among the franchisees has been slashed from ₹ 50 crore to ₹ 25 crore.

On top of that, they will have to pay ₹ 50 lakh to state associations for hosting an IPL game, an increase of ₹ 20 lakh. The IPL 2020 begins on March 29.

"We are unhappy that the play-off standing fund has been halved. We were not consulted. The franchisees have been discussing it informally and will soon have a formal meeting to discuss the issue," an official from a South-based franchise said.

The winning franchise now stands to earn ₹ 10 crore from the play-off standing fund as compared to ₹ 25 crore earlier, runners-up ₹ 6.25 crore instead of ₹ 12.5 crore and ₹ 4.3 crore each for teams which finish third and fourth (earlier it was ₹ 6.25 crore).

"It is a big hit. We are discussing it internally as well as with other teams. All the teams are meeting soon to discuss it," said an official from another franchise.

Defending champions Mumbai Indians host Chennai Super Kings in the IPL opener at Wankhede Stadium on March 29.