IPL has to go back to a home-and-away format from next year : Sourav Ganguly

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) got much richer on Tuesday. The Indian board sold the broadcasting rights for the Indian Premier League 2023-27 cycle for a whopping INR 48,390 crore. The domestic and overseas digital and television rights for the next five-year cycle have been bought by Star, Viacom, and Times Internet. 

With an astronomical amount of money comes a significant responsibility on the shoulders of the BCCI. The fans expect an even better cricket experience from the Indian board in the following years.

In his recent interaction, former Indian skipper and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly assured the league would only get more significant in the following year. The veteran revealed that the authorities are working towards developing better stadiums in the country. 

"We will work on it for sure and develop overall infrastructure for a better fan experience. A lot of new stadiums have come up, and the infrastructure of cricket in this country is huge. We will redo a few stadiums a bit and bring back IPL with completely different extravaganza and fandom next year," Sourav Ganguly said during his interaction with Sportstar. 

Though the Indian Premier League has touched greater heights in the last three years in viewership, it has not been the same for the fans and players. The covid-19 pandemic forced the BCCI to host the 2020 and 2021 editions of the tournament in the United Arab Emirates.

The league returned home this season, but all the league matches were played in Mumbai. After that, the teams moved to Kolkata for the playoffs, while Ahmedabad was allowed to host the high-profile final match. 

Speaking about the same, Ganguly said, "The last two years have been affected by COVID and the biggest thing is that despite COVID, we managed to host the tournament and this time, we finished it with great hype in Kolkata and Ahmedabad."

Further, the BCCI president also spoke about the concerns of conducting the matches in a few stadiums. The past three years saw IPL league games conducted in a limited number of stadiums. Towards the end, the pitches started wearing out, and the fans were served with a monotonous style of cricket. 

The BCCI president looked keen on resolving the issue as he added that the home and away format needs to be back. 

"It's a great tournament and it will continue to thrive. But most importantly, the IPL has to go back to a home-and-away format from next year." he concluded.