Former Team India opener Aakash Chopra has proposed the names of two cities to have franchises from next season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The Board of Control for Cricket in India, in all likelihood, will add two more franchises making the total number of teams to 10.
However, it’s still not out which two cities will become the new IPL franchises. A lot has been spoken over the new two franchises and the potential cities to get a team. Talking of the same, Aakash Chopra opined that the cities in the western, eastern, and central parts of India should be included in next year’s IPL.
Let’s go to places where they don’t have enough teams – Aakash Chopra
Speaking on his YouTube channel, the cricketer-turned-commentator highlighted five of the current eight IPL teams belong to the north and south region. While Delhi and Punjab belong to the north of India, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai are located in the south. Thus, Aakash Chopra believes cities in western, eastern, and central parts might get preference for the new sides.
“The BCCI has divided India into five zones for Ranji Trophy cricket. South already has three teams – RCB, CSK and SRH. North has teams in Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings. West, Central and East have one team each. So the first thing is let’s go to places where they don’t have enough teams. So we will have to leave out South and North. Secondly, we should also look at the population of the state,” said Chopra.
Speaking about the options from the West Zone, Aakash Chopra picked Ahmedabad as the favorite to be one of the base cities from IPL 2022 onwards. On the other hand, Chopra named Nagpur and Rajkot as the other base city options from the West Zone for the two new IPL franchises.
Watch the video here:
