The Indian Premier League will have 10 teams from 2022. The decision to include two new teams from the 15th edition of the IPL was ratified by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) at its 89th annual general meeting at Motera, near Ahmedabad, on Thursday afternoon.
The members decided that with a little more than three months remaining for the tournament, it would be difficult to go through the entire process of bidding and mega auction. The 2021 edition will be limited to eight teams because of time constraints.
It was learnt that president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah stressed on making the IPL bigger to give more opportunities to the players.
The AGM went along expected lines, and as reported by The Telegraph on Thursday, none of the members raised any questions related to the president’s brand endorsements or alleged conflict of interest.
The BCCI has also decided to be open in supporting the International Cricket Council’s bid for the inclusion of cricket in the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 after seeking some clarity from the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on its autonomy.
“We need to know if we have to give up our autonomy to be part of the IOA. If that be the case, we are against it. Our legal cell is looking into it. Some state associations also wanted to know about the revenue sharing model,” a state association member said.
On the contentious tax issue related to hosting ICC events, the deadline for which expires in a week, the BCCI will compensate the world body if exemptions were not granted by the government. India is slated to host the 2021 T20 World Cup and 2023 50-over World Cup.
“We will approach the government for tax rebate, but at the same time we will let the ICC know that if it doesn’t come through they can deduct the amount from our annual revenue of $390 million. The amount to be deducted roughly works out to be around $125 million,” the member said.
The other decisions taken at the AGM include:
- All first-class players, both men and women, will be suitably compensated for the curtailed domestic season owing to the pandemic.
- Sourav spoke in favour of exploring options for hosting the Ranji Trophy.
- Women’s Test cricket, a call on which will be taken by the apex council, came up for discussion.
- Sourav will continue as director on the ICC board while the secretary will be the alternate director as well as India’s representative at the chief executives’ committee.
- Rajiv Shukla was officially appointed the vice-president.
- The BCCI’s GM (game development), KVP Rao, has resigned after being asked to do so. It was learnt that his lack of proper planning during the pandemic was the reason for his ouster.