There are talks of the next IPL season in 2021 being a 10-team IPL with the introduction of two new teams. However, as per a recent report in InsideSport, the possibility of the same happening seems bleak due to lack of time at the hands of the BCCI. More on the matter is set to be discussed in the AGM meeting on December 24.
The 14th edition of the IPL is likely to be held in March-April and the BCCI has only a few months to finalise the details, including players’ auction, schedule, venue amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
10-Team IPL Tough in 2021: BCCI Official
Meanwhile, with so much to do for the BCCI, there is comparatively less time for the board to do everything in one go. In between that the 10-team IPL seems a bit distant as of now.
“Time is too short for introduction of the new teams for IPL in 2021. Tendering, players auction and most importantly getting all the stakeholders on the same page will be really challenging in a short-time span. We are of the view, any addition to the team should only happen for IPL 2022”, a BCCI official told InsideSport.
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While the BCCI is keen to add two new teams next season it seems that they can only play in 2022, with the broadcasting rights of Star Sports also ending next year.
“Our broadcast rights deal with Star will end by IPL 2021. After the end of the cycle we should introduce new teams so that the broadcast rights and other commercial partnership values can be increased. Final decision now will be taken in AGM only and according to me the plan to increase teams will be shelved this year” added the BCCI official.
Maintaining the current home and away format is another challenge that the BCCI will face. The board is planning to divide the groups into two groups to counter this problem. Ahmedabad, Kanpur and Lucknow are the three new cities in contention for the two teams.
The Adani Group and the Goenka group have emerged as the two new bidders for the respective teams.
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