The cricketing world is blessed with another innovative format of the game, “The Hundred”, which has become quite popular already. In that format, each team will play 100 balls. According to the latest reports, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) likely to allow the Under-23 players, who are not on national duty, to participate in the format.
As quoted by The Times of India, “BCCI may allow a certain category of Indian cricketers to participate in ‘The Hundred’”. “The Hundred” is innovated by the England and Wales Cricket Board. This will be played in English summer. Both capped and uncapped U-23 players who are off the national duty may feature in the tournament.
But it has been reported that BCCI might not allow other players to take part in that format. As the pandemic has wrecked the world, sending players might not be possible for the board as time is the constraint. BCCI and England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have not confirmed anything regarding this yet.
BCCI looking for a bigger window for IPL
Also, BCCI has not allowed players to take part in other leagues till now. The Sourav Ganguly-led body will like to continue the March window to schedule the Indian Premier League (IPL), which is the biggest franchise-based league in the world. BCCI is also planning to add two more teams from the next season. The additional teams will inflate the time slot as well. Hence, a longer window will be opted to pan out IPL, and more doubleheaders will be noted too. Also, the pressure will be on broadcasters and the management.
“A bigger window for the IPL in future will be BCCI’s biggest takeaway from this,” told an industry executive to The Times of India.
The 14th edition of the Indian Premier League is currently going on. The tournament started on April 9 and the final will be played on May 30. BCCI is executing the games in six cities: Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore, and Ahmedabad. The playoffs and final will be played at the Motera Stadium, Ahmedabad.