BCCI To Release Tender For New IPL Team After Diwali: Report

Just a couple of days after the completion of yet another highly successful edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the BCCI has already started planning for the next edition. The Indian cricket board is planning to extend the upcoming season and is reportedly contemplating adding a new team to the existing eight-team competition.

According to reports, the BCCI has already made up its mind on extending the number of teams and are currently contemplating on 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.

The board is now all geared up to bring a tender for the new franchise once Diwali is over. The BCCI will release the tender only after a consensus – on one or two franchises in next edition – is reached. The report added that a final decision is likely to be taken within the next 72 hours and a tender will be released thereafer.

“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.

The report also stated that the existing eight franchise and the other stakeholders involved have put forth some issues ahead of the addition of the new team.

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.

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 incluced, 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.

The interested parties:

The report 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.

Also Read: Melbourne Stars Sign Up Nicholas Pooran For Upcoming BBL Season

Also Read: PSL Suffer More Setback As Daren Sammy And Mitchell McClenaghan Pull Out