IPTL gets called out for breaking the business code
Fashioned after the wildly popular Indian Premier League that acts as entertainment fodder for the scores of cricket fans in India, the Indian Premier Tennis League (IPTL) came into being through the spirited endeavour of tennis ace Mahesh Bhupathi.
With the sole goal of making tennis more popular and a fun sport for the masses, the IPTL was given birth to in November 2014. Having hosted three seasons so far, the IPTL's popularity suffered a harsh decline owing to organizers having 'broken the business code.'
For a league that started off with the likes of 20 time Grand Slam Champion Roger Federer and 17 time Grand Slam Champion Rafael Nadal engaging in exhibition matches in the inaugural edition, the IPTL currently seems to have faded out. It is no new news that the major reason behind the IPTL suffering is because of financial crunches which are taking a toll on the potential success of the league.
No stone was left unturned in organizing the event on a grand scale in all three editions. With the latest season being concluded in 2016, it is disheartening to learn that the TV production crew and associated tournament service providers for the event still have their payments pending for all their 'labour and associated expenses.'
The Mahesh Bhupathi-spearheaded one-of-a-kind tennis league which had five categories- Men's Singles, Women's Singles, Mixed Doubles, Men's Doubles and Past Champions' Singles attracted top players from far and wide to exhibit their prowess. However, in a press release by the Broadcast Sports News, it has come to public knowledge that Bhupathi has been dilly-dallying with releasing the entire payments for the production team who worked tirelessly throughout the course of the event.
The work required quite a bit of running around and paying visits to several continents to ensure the reach of the coverage. With so much of dedication and effort being invested into making the 2016 edition a success, it is sad to hear that none of the production members including the technology service providers, satellite uplink and distribution suppliers, chair umpires and court surface providers have been paid.
The callousness of the IPTL organizing committee is rather surprising. It is shameful to see such a major league not being able to pay the production crew of the event. It's not a pleasant sight to see so many people working so hard but still not get paid their visa costs, expenses, per diems and ground transport fees.
It's about time the Mahesh Bhupathi led brigade took notice of this and released the pending amounts for all the hard work the organisers and everyone else involved had put in to make IPTL a success.