Should Sports Stop When Countries Fight?

Bachan Sethi, Year 8 winner

How the 2025 India-Pakistan Crisis Hurt Cricket Economics

Introduction

In May 2025, two of the world’s biggest cricket tournaments were abruptly cut short! Not because of rain or player injuries, but because two neighbouring countries were engaged in combat. India and Pakistan have disagreed about Kashmir since 1947, when both countries were created post partition. Those disagreements have been ongoing for decades, but matters became very serious again in May 2025 when India raided suspected terrorist training camps inside Pakistan. Pakistan then retaliated, and playing cricket matches close to the border became a risky endeavor. This put both the Indian and Pakistan cricket boards in a dilemma: keep playing and earning money, or stop the games to ensure everyone's safety.

What Really Happened?

Cricket is huge in Pakistan and India—it's a religion, not a game, and makes billions of pounds a year for both countries. The Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Pakistan Super League (PSL) both happen at the same time, mainly because Pakistani players can't play for the IPL and Indians can't play for the PSL because of all the politics involved between the two countries.

And then everything changed on May 8, 2025. Sirens of alarms went off in the middle of an IPL match between Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings in Dharamshala and one had to evacuate the stadium at once. The match was only 10 overs through when this happened! The Indian board of cricket suspended the entire IPL for a week at once, even though they had played 58 out of a possible 74 games. At the same time, Pakistan sought to move their PSL tournament to the UAE in order to ensure that it is safe, but after the UAE said they would not host it, they sought to abandon the whole setup.

The Money Lost: IPL Financial Impact

The money lost was absolutely massive. Every cancelled IPL match cost ₹100-125 crore, which is about £11 million per match. Even with insurance helping out, they still lost ₹50-60 crore (£5-6 million) per match. Just that one week delay cost the Indian cricket board £36-50 million.

But it wasn't just the BCCI (Indian cricket board) that got hit hard. JioCinema, the company that shows IPL matches on TV and online, could have lost over £170 million—that's more than a third of all the money they expected to make from the IPL this year! Cricket teams also suffered, especially ones like Royal Challengers Bengaluru who lost millions from cancelled home games and ticket sales.

The worst part is that it wasn't just rich companies losing money. Thousands of regular workers got hurt too—people who sell food at stadiums, security guards, people who clean the stadiums, and taxi drivers all lost the money they needed to pay their bills. Hotels, restaurants, and shops in cricket cities also lost tons of business because no one was coming to watch matches anymore.

The Money Lost: PSL Financial Impact

Pakistan's cricket league got hit just as badly. The Pakistan Cricket Board spent loads of money trying to move eight matches to the UAE—they had to pay for new visas, flights, hotels, and booking new stadiums. When the UAE refused to let them play there, all that money was completely wasted.

Pakistan's local economy lost out too. The PSL brings in millions through ticket sales, merchandise, and tourists coming to watch games. Cities like Rawalpindi, Multan, and Lahore missed out on all that money. International players flew home early, and with the tournament cancelled indefinitely, Pakistani cricket lost crucial broadcast income and the chance to show off to the world.

Should This Have Happened? The Economic Argument

From a money point of view, stopping the tournaments seemed expensive, but was probably the right call. The biggest reason is that keeping players safe is more important than anything—if players got hurt or scared, it would cost significantly more money in the long run.

If the tournaments had kept playing while people were fighting wars nearby, it would have made cricket as a sport look insensitive around the world. Imagine if fans or players got injured during a match because of the conflict—the lawsuits and bad publicity would have cost lots more in the long run than postponing the tournament for a week.

But there are also reasons why stopping the tournament was a poor course of action financially. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs or income, from millionaire players down to people earning minimum wage cleaning stadiums. Millions of cricket fans lost entertainment they'd already paid for, which made them angry and meant cricket companies had to give refunds. Airlines, hotels, restaurants, and loads of small businesses that depend on cricket tourism all lost money too.

The scariest part is what this means for the future. If every time countries have political problems, sports get cancelled, then cricket and all other sports become a very risky business for sponsors and TV companies to invest in.

Conclusion

The 2025 India-Pakistan crisis cost cricket over £200 million, but the cricket boards made the smart choice by putting safety first. Even though losing that much money really hurt in the short term, protecting players and fans was more important than one season's profits. This whole situation showed how sports and politics are connected whether we like it or not.

The main lesson for cricket's money side is simple: in a crazy world, keeping people safe and protecting cricket's reputation is worth more than any amount of cash from one tournament. Sometimes spending money to do the right thing is the best investment you can make for the future.