Published: Dec 25, 2019, 01:16 PM (IST)
Edited: Dec 25, 2019, 01:16 PM (IST)
Rajasthan Royals owner Manoj Badale believes that the addition of another franchise will benefit the Indian Premier League on several fronts.
While Badale thinks that the current number of teams (eight) is good enough but adding another one will only help in the further growth of the cash-rich T20 league. “We believe that eight is a good number of teams for the IPL given the length of the window and the logistics for all franchises and star. Adding a new franchise will, however, enable a new stadium to be played in, new fans to be deeply engaged in this amazing sport and more matches for our avid supporters, which are all certainly beneficial to the game,” Badale told IANS.
At the IPL 2020 auction, RR bought Robin Uthappa, Jaydev Unadkat, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Kartik Tyagi, Tom Curran, Anuj Rawat, David Miller, Oshane Thomas, Akash Singh, Akash Singh and Anirudha Ashok Joshi.
Badale says that they have stitched together a squad capable of adding to their lone IPL trophy which they won in the inaugural season in 2008/ “We believe we now have the right combination of captain and coach for success. We ran an extremely robust process through the summer to select Andrew McDonald and are very happy with the appointment, while in (Steve) Smith we have the captain with one of the best win records in the IPL,” he said.
As per recent media reports, the IPL teams have been consistently pitching the idea of organising international friendlies to further the brand IPL and Badale backs the proposal. “We played the first and only ever international friendly in Lords in 2009 against Middlesex and would certainly be supportive of playing some friendly matches abroad each year. The support for the IPL in every cricket playing country around the world is huge, so we’d love to be able to give these fans the opportunity to watch their heroes up close and create incredible atmospheres in these fantastic stadiums,” he opined.
