David Warner Joined Nepal's League. Who's Paying for It?

0:00 The toss: one IPL player vs a whole NPL season

Last season, the Nepal Premier League's own books show it brought in about Rs 47 crore. Now look at this man. Last December, one IPL team paid INR 25 crore for him at an auction.

In Nepali money, that's about Rs 40 crore. One player. Almost a whole league. Quick intro if you're new.

The NPL is Nepal's own T20 league. 8 teams, one ground in Kirtipur, and a month of cricket, running until the 21st of November. And this season, the NPL went big anyway.

Superstar names. Ball-tracking replays. An official stamp from the ICC. So who's actually paying for all this cricket?

And does the money add up? Let's follow it, ball by ball.

0:44 Powerplay: where the money comes from

First question: where does the money come in? Quick money lesson first. 1 crore is 10 million rupees. Keep that in your pocket.

The biggest deals we can see are for television. For this season, Himalaya Television bought the rights to show it on TV in Nepal. And NetTV bought the right to stream it to the whole world, for Rs 18 crore.

Add the ticketing deal, and the rights come to about Rs 33.5 crore. For just this one season. The second pipe is you, in the stands. A league match ticket starts at Rs 500.

eSewa sells the tickets, keeps 5%, and the cricket board keeps the rest. Third pipe: sponsors. The title sponsor is Siddhartha Bank, on a 5-year deal. The price?

Never made public. And the fourth pipe is the strangest one. The teams themselves. In 2024, companies bid to own the 8 teams.

A medical college bought one. A newspaper house bought another. A construction company bought a third. All 8 bids together came to almost Rs 17 crore.

And look closely at the bids. Kathmandu's was almost all threes. And Sudurpaschim's was full of the number eight. Why?

They've never said. But remember those eights. They come back later. So, four pipes: TV, tickets, sponsors and teams.

Now, where does it all go?

2:13 Middle overs: where the money goes

Let's open last season's books. These are the cricket board's own figures, from April this year. In: about Rs 47 crore. First, the bills.

Running the tournament cost about Rs 22 crore. That leaves about Rs 25 crore to share. Most of it goes to the teams. About Rs 16 crore, shared between the 8 franchises.

And what's left with the cricket board? About Rs 9 crore. That's a big jump. After the first season, the board kept only about Rs 2.5 crore.

In one year, the league's income grew by about 70%. Not bad for a league that, a few years ago, didn't exist. So the league is growing fast. But here's the strange part.

It's still small enough that, last December, a single IPL player went for nearly as much as this entire scoreboard.

3:05 Strategic timeout: the stars, the auction, the lucky draw

Which raises the obvious question. How does a league this size sign David Warner? Or Andre Russell? Or David Miller?

The honest answer: we don't know what they're paid. The fees have never been published. And the auction itself is tiny by IPL standards. This July, the top price was Rs 20 lakh, for Nepal's own Aasif Sheikh.

The bidding hit the maximum, so his team was decided by a lucky draw. What we do know is that the rules opened the door wider. Teams can now carry up to 8 overseas players, up from 6. But only 4 can play in any one match.

And every team must field at least one player from an ICC Associate nation, the countries outside cricket's top table, like Nepal itself. The prize got bigger too. This season's champion takes home Rs 1.5 crore.

So who's lifted it so far? Season one: Janakpur Bolts. Season two: Lumbini Lions. And the team they beat in both finals?

Sudurpaschim. The team with all the eights.

4:12 Big hitters: the South Asia ladder

So, how big is the NPL really? Let's put it on the South Asia ladder. We'll compare one thing: what broadcasters pay to show each league. At the top, India's IPL.

Its TV and streaming rights sold for about INR 118 crore, per match. In Nepali money, that's almost NPR 190 crore. For one match. That's about 4 times everything the NPL earned in its whole second season.

Pakistan's PSL sits in the middle. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka don't publish what their leagues' rights sell for. And the NPL? About NPR 33 crore for this whole season.

So Nepal is on the bottom rung. But it is on the ladder. And look at the ages. The IPL started in 2008.

Pakistan's league in 2016. Nepal's is in only its third season.

5:10 The pitch: what this season is betting on

Now, the NPL hasn't always been smooth. Before it, Nepal tried a different T20 league with a private partner, on an 8-year deal worth about Rs 33 crore. For the first edition, the board says it was owed about Rs 3.9 crore.

It got Rs 1.2 crore. The partner's co-founder left for India, and the board said the deal was over. So when the NPL launched in 2024, the cricket board organised it itself. And on its very first night, the tickets had sold out 3 days early.

Then more fans turned up than could get in. There was a stampede at the southern gate. At least 8 people were hurt, including police officers. Fans said tickets were oversold, and the ticket company later offered refunds to people turned away.

Two seasons later, the board is spending to fix that. About 2,000 extra seats, and a different ticket partner. And for the first time, DRS. 3D ball-tracking and AI edge detection, for LBWs, run-outs, stumpings and no- balls.

It costs around Rs 1.5 to 2 crore, split between the board and the teams. Why bother? Because on the 16th of October, the ICC sanctioned this season. Runs and wickets now count in players' official T20 records.

6:29 Final over: so who pays?

So, final over. Who pays for the Nepal Premier League? The biggest deals we can see are with the broadcasters. About Rs 33 crore this season, for TV and streaming.

Then the fans in the stands, the sponsors, and the companies that own the teams. This season, the board says it expects about Rs 20 crore from sponsors, and more than Rs 70 crore from tickets and broadcasting. Those are the board's own expectations.

We'll check the real numbers when they're out. And one thing we still can't tell you: whether the teams make money. Their accounts aren't published, and the league's audit is still waiting for board approval.

So, 3 things to watch this season. Do the crowds fill those new seats? Do the stars bring in viewers from outside Nepal? And does the board publish the real numbers afterwards?

Here's the scoreline. A whole season of the NPL earned a little more than one IPL player cost. But the IPL has had almost 20 years to get this big. The NPL has only just walked out to bat.

Sources: the Cricket Association of Nepal, the Kathmandu Post, and other Nepali and Indian outlets. Every link is in the description. If this helped, like it, share it with someone who'd find it useful, and subscribe to The Himalayan Ledger.

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