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IPL Won’t be a 10-Team Event as BCCI Plans to Add Just One More Franchise For Now: Report

IPL was expected to be a 10-team affair from 2022 onwards following a BCCI Annual General Meeting held in December last year.

The BCCI may have given approval for the addition of two more franchises to IPL but the board is planning to keep it to a nine-team affair as of now owing to various reasons. The event was expected to be a 10-team affair from 2022 onwards following a BCCI Annual General Meeting held in December last year.

However, according to a report in The Times of India, the BCCI wants to extract better value from the 10th team in the future. “All said, it’s a well-thought move. The BCCI will clearly benefit in the short and long run because it’ll derive better value from the 10th franchise in the future, doesn’t really disturb the ecosystem for now, buys them more time to put their own house in order,” TOI quoted an unnamed industry executive as saying.

In addition, a change in format will be necessary to fit the league in the current window as per the annual cricket calendar. There are plans to extend the window of the event by at least a month.

Also, BCCI wants to “maintain the quality of the tournament” and ensure “quality cricketers are available to make for a 10-team pool.”

2023 sounds a more practical window since the ODI World Cup, scheduled to be hosted by India, has been shifted from February-March to October-November meaning there a bigger window will be available for IPL.

“It is the smaller boards, who did not want BCCI’s comeback in the ICC and are pushing for the eight-year cycle of global events to work, who are not in favour of what India’s looking at. But from an industry standpoint, that’s not how it works. The IPL is like the elephant in the room and it’s going to make space for itself,” the English daily further quoted sources as saying.

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