In the past 15 years or so, Indian cricketers have made lot of money through match and advertisements.  The inception of Twenty 20 Format have only increased their wealth further, but the fact remains that the biggest beneficiaries of this latest format have been BCCI &  Bollywood Film Stars.

Many of us are probably not aware of the origin of Twenty20 format in India.  ICC proposed member countries to introduce a Twenty20 format.  They wanted a World Cup for T20 as well wanted member countries to introduce tournaments for T20 cricket at domestic level.  India objected to introduction of this format.  Then ICC decided that T20 has to be introduced and called for a voting of member countries.  All countries voted in favour of T20 cricket while India were the only country who voted against this format. Since all countries with the exception of India voted for T20, BCCI had no other option but to introduce T20 tournaments in India at domestic levels very unwillingly.

India went to T20 World Cup as the most inexperienced team.  There was only one T20 match played by India against South Africa before playing directly in the World Cup.  All other teams had played much more matches and therefore were far more experienced.  The unexpected happened, the least experienced team in tournament, Team India won the T20 World Cup.

BCCI took full advantage of T20 Win.  BCCI which opposed T20 format and ICL, gave birth to IPL which players of the calibre of Gilchrist went on to say was bigger than the World Cup or for that matter bigger than even the Sydney Olympics.  They made it so lucrative that some players took early retirement from the game to represent IPL, while some players like Warne came out of retirement to play for IPL.  The current superstars and forgotten superstars of Bollywood left no unturned in cashing on the popularity.  Even sidelined actors, fringe actors & forgotten actors wasted no time in getting publicities by buying IPL teams. While cricketers made huge sums it was Bollywood Stars, business magnets and cheer leaders who became much more popular and went on to become household names.

Regards

Satish