Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The International Cricket Council (ICC)’s Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, whose first of the 10 matches kicked off on Thursday, is expected to add USD 2.4 billion (Rs. 200 crore) to the Indian economy.
This is the 13th edition of the Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) tournament contested by men’s national teams and organized by the ICC. India is hosting it for the first time since 2011, from October 5 to November 19.
Ten national teams are participating in the event: Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka. West Indies are missing out for the first time in ICC’s ODI history. England are the defending champions, having won the 2019 edition by defeating New Zealand in the final.
The tournament is taking place in 10 stadiums. The first and second semi-finals will be held at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and Eden Gardens in Kolkata respectively, while the final will take place at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
The tournament is likely to draw a large number of visiting fans from overseas as well as in India where it is coinciding with the three-month-long festive season that started in September. This season is marked by “sentimental purchases of merchandise” in the retail sector.
Since the ODI matches will be played across 10 cities, travel and hospitality sectors will also be major beneficiaries, the media reports, quoting Bank of Baroda economists Jahnavi Prabhakar and Aditi Gupta, said on Thursday.
The total Indian viewership for the tournament, including both on television and streaming platforms, could be far larger than the 552 million seen in 2019. On a conservative basis, that may generate Rs 10,500 crore to Rs 12,000 crore in TV rights and sponsorship revenues.
However, the World Cup cricket mania may also cause inflation.
The economists said that airline tickets and hotel rentals have surged for the tournament period, and service charges in the informal sector in the 10 host cities could show substantial increases on top of the festive-season impact. Overall, inflation may rise between 0.15 percent and 0.25 percent for October and November.
The tournament will also grease the Government of India coffers through increased tax collections on ticket sales, goods and services taxes on hotels, restaurants, and food delivery, giving the South Asian country additional fiscal space, they added.