The top brass of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is scheduled to meet tomorrow, December 24 in the annual general meeting of the board.
There are various decisions on 23-point agendas that have to be taken in the AGM which will be the 89th of the boards, and it is highly likely that the members will give a go-ahead on adding two more teams in the Indian Premier League. However, there is uncertainty on the year when the two franchises will be added and it is widely believed that the BCCi will decide to expand the league in the 2022 edition, and not in the next edition next year.
As per a PTI report, stakeholders involved in the decision-making process of addition of two more teams believe that the new franchises will not get adequate time to build a team competitive enough to challenge other teams with not more than 3-4 months left for the next IPL.
“There are a lot of modalities that need to be discussed and most of the stakeholders feel that with IPL being held in April, there is very little time for a mega auction and to have a uniform retention policy, agreeable to all the existing franchises. You have to invite tenders and have a bidding process ready. In case you have two teams winning bids in late January or early February, they need to be given time for auction which can then be held only in March. That leaves a new team with very little time to plan,” PTI quoted an unnamed BCCI official as saying.
BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has already confirmed that the IPL will be held in India next year. In case of two more teams, there will be as many as 94 matches, which is significantly higher than the total number of matches in the IPL which remains around 60 every season and it would need the board to restructure its broadcasting rights and will have to take all stakeholder such as current franchises, ICC, broadcaster and other cricket boards as the length of the tournament will also be longer.
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