With the 13th edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) done and dusted, the focus has already shifted towards the next season. Cricfit earlier reported that IPL 2021 will be a nine-team affair and now, a new report suggests that BCCI will release a tender for the new IPL team after Diwali.
Meanwhile, BCCI has already made up its mind on extending the number of teams and are currently contemplating whether to add one team or two teams. According to TOI, the BCCI is likely to introduce one team for the 2021 edition before introducing another for the 2022 edition.
BCCI to release tender for new IPL team after Diwali
The report also added that the tender is most likely to come after Diwali once the decision is taken. It also added a mega auction becomes inevitable in case a new team is injected.
“The tender is most likely to come after Diwali, once a decision is taken in this regard. And regardless of whether it’s one franchise or two, if new teams come in then a mega auction cannot be avoided,” the news outlet quoted sources as saying.
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Meanwhile, the report adds that the current eight franchises and their stakeholders have put some issues with BCCI regarding the addition of the new team. It also claims that the Adani Group, the Tatas and the RPG-Sanjiv Goenka Group are keen to own a franchise in IPL.
Leading banker Uday Kotak has also shown interest along with media entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala. At present, the only thing that is confirmed is the new franchise will be based in Ahmedabad.
Here are the concerns surrounding the new IPL team:
a) The central revenue pool is unlikely to undergo a change until the 2023 edition and hence, a new side coming in will result in the dilution of the present revenue cycle.
b) With the 2021 edition of the tournament likely to begin between last week of March and the first week of April, there’s not adequate time (just three-and-half months) to conduct a mega auction.
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c) If one new team is brought in, it will result in 60 matches going up to 76, in the current format. If two new franchises are included, the number of matches will go up to 90 and a major concern is that the IPL window is too short to adjust these games.