The report says the fact that the IPL has managed to achieve such a small audience share outside India so far means there is room for strong growth, pointing to press discussion about potential rivals such as P20 (Britain) and the Southern Premier League (South Africa, Australia and New Zealand).

'There is substantial scope for growth in the international popularity of the format, and consequently in the revenues that could accrue to all relevant parties,' it says.

'Having a format that is relevant and compelling is critical, and the relatively small TV audiences drawn by the IPL in international markets suggests that the IPL has not yet cracked the formula for attracting fans the world over.'

Patriotism could be a significant factor: it may not be IPL that cricket fans are watching, but audiences around the world do tend to watch a lot of domestic Twenty20 cricket on TV, drawn by local cricketing heroes and local clubs.

Similarly, the doubling of South African viewers of IPL in 2009 occurred because the matches were taking place in South Africa.

Alavy said cricket fans in Australia and Britain watched the recent World Twenty20 Cup more than the IPL.

'Hence a big challenge for IPL will be how to build an international supporter base, with fans feeling an allegiance to particular franchises, rather than merely their favourite players,' the reports said.

It said the IPL's decision to grant British TV rights to Setanta, rather than a dominant platform such as BSkyB meant that the audience size in Britain was always going to be 'severely limited.'

Setanta achieved only 1.2 million paying subscribers at its peak out of a total of more than 26 million households in Britain.

The report suggests that the IPL can make inroads into the lucrative British (mainly English) market through a mixture of choosing a better TV channel; creating awareness about the IPL among fans; giving fans reasons to support a franchise; and highlighting 'local heroes' such as Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff.