The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI’s) Annual General Meeting (AGM) on December 24 is set to approve the addition of two new teams to the Indian Premier League, but IPL 2021 may still be an eight-team tournament, with the familiar round-robin league followed by the Playoffs.
“Approval on inclusion of 2 (two) new teams to the Indian Premier League,” states one of the 23 points on the agenda of the AGM, to be held in Ahmedabad on Thursday. The Hindu understands that the proposal will be passed unanimously on the floor of the meeting, but the “office-bearers will be authorised to chalk out the nitty-gritty”.
“Once the addition of the two new teams is approved in principle, the office-bearers will figure out whether it’s feasible to add two new teams right away,” revealed an insider. “At the moment, they have been advised that eight teams should be persisted with for IPL 2021. Once the market improves, the teams can be added for IPL 2022.”
It is learnt that the BCCI hierarchy is all but convinced about waiting till IPL 2022 for a ten-team tournament. Considering the challenging economic situation, primarily due the pandemic, the Board is unlikely to get the best deal either from prospective bidders or the broadcaster. Besides, the inclusion of two new teams will lead to an overhaul of all the existing teams — a logistical and tactical nightmare for the BCCI executives and IPL franchises to pull off at short notice.
A couple of franchise officials confirmed that despite “not having any say in decision-making”, they have been informally told to be ready for IPL 2021 with “the same format”.
