With less than five days left for T20 World Cup 2026 to start, off-field drama is already hogging the headlines across digital and print media. On Sunday (February 2), the Pakistan government announced that their senior men's cricket team wouldn't be playing their fixture against India in the tournament, slated for February 15.
Pakistan's move was tactical, given that the Pakistan Cricket Board is yet to officially convey this update to the International Cricket Council. However, the Pakistan government's decision is a still a clear message to the ICC, except that the communication channel isn't the ideal route.
How much money is the India-Pakistan game worth?
JioHotstar and Star Sports have estimated a value of Rs 300 crore from Ads alone for the India-Pakistan game. Also, every match in T20 World Cup 2026 is valued at roughly Rs 139 crore from a television rights point of view. That's already close to Rs 450 crore in revenue and we haven't factored in the ticket sales yet.
What does this mean for Pakistan?
The PCB is set to lose an approximate of Rs 200 crore through direct and indirect revenue streams if the game doesn't go ahead. They also get an approximate amount of Rs 31-32 crore as a revenue share from the ICC. This amount could be suspended in such a scenario, considering that the PCB have violated the ICC member participation agreement.
The other thing to note is that Pakistan's withdrawal doesn't have any solid reasoning - the government didn't mention any valid reason for the withdrawal either - and this means that they cannot be immune to the sanctions if the ICC decide to impose them. Also, Pakistan's future games - bilaterals and ICC tournament matches - would have a stamp of unpredictability around them from a sponsors point of view.
What about India and BCCI?
Like Pakistan, India would also lose about Rs 200 crore through direct and indirect avenues if the India-Pakistan clash doesn't happen. However, India's major financial weapon is the Indian Premier League. According to noted writer-sports producer Joy Bhattacharjya who was also once associated with Kolkata Knight Riders, IPL television rights annually are estimated to be at Rs 14,669 crore!
That means that a single IPL game in IPL 2026 will be worth approximately Rs 175 crore and this is purely from broadcasting rights. There are the various advertising streams and ticket sales that also need to be factored in. In any case, the Board of Control for Cricket in India makes a massive chunk of its revenue through the IPL, which makes the India-Pakistan forfeit a manageable loss for India.