Sourav Ganguly-Led BCCI Takes U-turn On ICC Events To Have Bigger Window For Expanded 10-Team IPL: Reports

The Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) in India has backtracked on its stance on ICC adding two more world events in the global cricketing cycle of 2024-31, which may lead to them having a few extra days and possibly a larger window for their 10-team IPL tournament beginning from 2022.

The BCCI had announced that the IPL 2022 will be a 10-team event some time back and this meant that the IPL governing council and Indian board will need more days to accommodate the matches of the two new teams.

Earlier, the BCCI, along with England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Cricket Australia (CA), were initially opposed to the idea of more global events, openly stating that they believe in the concept of less is more.

“Sometimes less is more in life. So we have got to be careful with that. And the football World Cup happens every four years and you see the madness. That’s a decision the ICC has to make I’m not in a position to talk or comment on it. As and when I get an opportunity to be a part of the discussion, I will speak,” BCCI President Sourav Ganguly had said in 2019.

Ganguly himself was a signatory to the recent ICC board decision which approved two ODI World Cups, four Twenty20 World Cups, and two Champions Trophies for the next eight-year cycle.

Bargain Struck Between BCCI And ICC To Facilitate Bigger Window For Future 10-Team IPL Tournaments

However, now, Cricbuzz has reported that according to sources, the ICC and the BCCI have reached some sort of bargain that allows the expanded Indian Premier League (IPL) to have a larger window to play its matches. At the moment, the 8-team IPL tournament requires 52-54 days to play the 60 games and the world cricket calendar has mostly been kept free of international cricket in April-May, which helps foreign players to participate in the IPL without conflict of international cricket.

However, with the IPL 2022 expanding to 10 teams, the window will need another 15-20 days and the BCCI is contemplating adding a part of March.

As of now the format of the 10-team IPL and which two teams will be added to the mix is not finalized, but the number of games could either be 76 or 94, depending on whether the BCCI wants to conduct the league in two groups or if it stays in the current format. Either way, the IPL would need an extra 15 days.

The idea of a 10-team IPL has been welcomed by the officials of the broadcasters as well. The current broadcast cycles of the IPL and ICC end in June 2022 and November 2023 respectively. The tenders should be out one year prior to that.

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