The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is reportedly planning to issue a tender for a new IPL franchise once the Diwali weekend is over. Discussion is ongoing as to whether to add one or two teams for the next edition of the hugely popular T20 league.
“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 Times of India quoted sources as saying.
Should there be a new team(s), the BCCI will have to conduct a mega IPL auction before the next season which is likely to start by the end of March 2021.
The small window between IPL 13 and IPL 14 is of concern to several current franchises who think holding a full-fledged auction will not be practical. Additionally, the current window in which the league is conducted may not be able to accommodate the increased number of matches if two more teams were to be added.
Even if one team was to be added games would increase from 60 to 76 games. A new media rights deal will go to tender towards the end of 2021.
This, it’s been projected, will increase the value of any new franchises. “BCCI should ideally bring out a tender for new franchises after the media rights tender because they’ll get a higher value. In the middle of this pandemic, it’s always a risky proposition,” the daily quoted sources as saying.
Several corporate giants including the likes of Adani Group, Tata, RPG-Sanjiv Goenka Group among others are interested ion buying IPL franchises.
John Stephenson
john@cricketinvestor.co.uk
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