2018 IPL will undergo a lot of changes : The league stage of this year’s IPL ended yesterday with RPS, MI, KKR and SRH making it to the playoffs. Gujarat Lions (GL) failed to make it to the top four on the back of some inconsistent performances from its players. While the other unqualified teams would be hoping for a better outing next year, Gujarat Lions might have played their last game of the IPL ever against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Saturday evening.
Rising Pune Supergiant(RPS) and Gujarat Lions(GL) face uncertain future as Chennai super kings(CSK) and Rajasthan Royals(RR) are all set to make a comeback in the next edition of Indian Premier league. The two-year ban on Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals ends in 2017, which means the old franchisees are ready to appear in 2018 edition of the tournament. According to the IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla, the current two franchisees (RPS and GL) won’t get any extension.
“No extension is being given to both the teams (RPS and GL). The agreement was only for two years. Even if we make it a 10-team league, the two new teams would have to be freshly bid, so they (RPS and GL) are not being given any extension or anything,”
The prospect of RPS and GL featuring in the IPL 2018 looks very bleak as IPL Governing Council has already refused to a prospect of extending IPL to a 10-team tournament. Governing council fears that in addition to packed schedule of international cricket, such a move will increase the number of games to a considerable amount, which may foster a loss of interest in viewing public.
Shukla further added, “Next year, as per SC order, the two (suspended) teams would be back. The issue of whether 8 or 10 teams will come up at the IPL GC meeting. So far, the plan is to go ahead with 8 teams. A 10-team league has to be endorsed by the Governing Council.”
The Indian premier league is set for a major overhaul next year. There will be fresh auctions for new title ship sponsors and media rights. The contract for the IPL media rights will be reduced to five years, earlier it was 10.
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Originally an open player auction was to be conducted after the 10-year cycle, with all the players in the auction pool, but Shukla indicated that retention policy of the players might continue even after the 10-year period.
“We will have a mega auction but retention policy also needs to be decided. The mega-auction is not going to take place immediately it will be just before next IPL, so we have enough time to decide.”
Although the chances of GL and RPS featuring in next year’s IPL seems unpromising, there is still a possibility of these two teams returning through a fresh bidding process. All of these things are speculations at the moment. Things are expected to clear in coming few months and we may soon come to know what future holds for both the teams.