AHMEDABAD, Dec 24: The Indian Premier League (IPL), the world’s one of the most popular cricket tournament in T20 format, will be further expanded from 2022.
The annual tournament currently played on league-cum-knockout basis between eight teams will become a 10-team affair from 2022 with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) at its 89th Annual General Body Meeting held in Ahmedabad on Thursday approving addition of two more teams in the IPL.
Earlier it was expected that at least one team could be added in 2021 edition itself but the Board sources said it was decided to wait for one year to expand the format because of the shortage of time for the next tournament expected to be held at the normal schedule of April-May.
According to sources, Ahmedabad, the home of presently the world’s largest cricket stadium at Motera with a seating capacity of 110,000, is almost certain to be one of the new IPL teams. Ahmedabad is also the home of the BCCI secretary Jay Shah.
In another major development, the Board, in principle, decided to back the ICC’s bid for inclusion of cricket, in the T20 format, in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics “after getting some clarifications from the International Olympic Committee.”
Also, it was decided that all first-class players, both men and women, would be suitably compensated for the curtailed domestic season due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The BCCI plans to get the domestic season underway, after several months’ delay, in January with the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 championship.
The BCCI also decided that the veteran Congress leader Rajiv Shukla to be officially anointed the Board’s vice president in place of his protégé Mahim Verma from Uttarakhand.
It was also learnt that the general body decided in favour of the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly continuing as a director in the ICC Board while secretary Jay Shah will be the alternate director as well as India’s representative at the Chief Executive Committee meets of the global body.
(Manas Dasgupta)
