Former India opener Aakash Chopra opined on the selection of the two new teams that will be added to the Indian Premier League (IPL) from the 2022 season onwards and said that the BCCI should look towards places that don’t have enough representation in the league already.
The IPL has been mostly an eight-team affair albeit having 10 teams in the IPL 2011 and 9 teams in 2012. The 10-team IPL saw the teams being divided equally into two groups, with each team playing the team in their own group twice and the team in the other group once. This maintained the 14 games per team count and had an interesting feel to it.
Ishant Sharma of Delhi Capitals celebrates after takes a wicket of Devdutt Padikkal of Royal Challengers Bangalore during match 22 of the Vivo Indian Premier League 2021 between the Delhi Capitals and the Royal Challengers Bangalore held at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on the 27th April 2021. Photo by: Rahul Gulati / Sportzpics for IPL
The BCCI was supposed to include one team in IPL 2021 and another in IPL 2022, but with COVID-19 impacting the IPL 2021, BCCI will now include both teams in IPL 2022, making it a 10-team tournament going forward.
First Thing Is Let’s Go To Places Where They Don’t Have Enough Teams: Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra pointed out that the South of India had three teams representing them- Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challenger Bangalore, and Sunrisers Hyderabad, while the North also had enough teams in Delhi Capitals, and Punjab Kings, while West, Central, and East zones had one team each in Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders respectively.
“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 on his YouTube channel.
The cricketer-turned-commentator picked Ahmedabad from West Zone as the favorite to be one of the cities to be the base for one of the new teams.
“Ahmedabad is the frontrunner in this race from the West, the Narendra Modi Stadium. The state has a population of more than 7 crores and has a cricketing legacy. It is the world’s largest ground and the stage is set for the West to get another team,” opined Chopra.
Let’s Have The Other Team From Central Or East Zones: Aakash Chopra
Further speaking about the representation from other zones, Aakash Chopra suggested Guwahati and Cuttack as the other alternatives but chose Ranchi as his top pick for the second new team.
“The first option from the East is Ranchi, the Jharkhand Cricket Association Stadium. The state has a population of about 4 crores. The stadium has a capacity of around 50000. It has hosted the IPL earlier but how would it look if Dhoni is not there in Ranchi, but so be it,” said Chopra.
Apart from Ranchi from the East Zone, Chopra chose Lucknow as the base for the option from the central zone, especially with it having a brand new stadium in Ekana with 50,000 seating capacity.
Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow (Image Credit: Twitter)
“Lucknow is the frontrunner from the Central zone. There is the new Ekana Stadium which hosted the Afghanistan team. The women’s matches against South Africa were also hosted there. It has a capacity of 50000 and the state’s population is 25 crores. I would say it makes more sense for Uttar Pradesh to have a team,” added Chopra.
Concluding his opinion, Aakash Chopra mentioned that as far as he sees, Ahmedabad and Lucknow might end up with the two new teams in IPL 2021.
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