MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s plans to add a ninth franchise from Ahmedabad to the Indian Premier League mix, ahead of the 2021 season of the IPL, will reportedly take concrete shape after the Diwali week, when the BCCI brings out an official Invitation To Tender (ITT).
As already reported, SportzPower sees the Gujarat-based conglomerate Adani Group as a “shoo-in” to be named the owner of IPL’s Ahmedabad franchise.
According to Times of India however, along with Adani, the Tatas and the RPG-Sanjiv Goenka Group are also keen to own a franchise in the IPL. As too leading banker Uday Kotak, along with media entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala.
TOI further reports that whatever the BCCI decides, the existing eight franchises and other stakeholders have three major concerns:
a) The central revenue pool is unlikely to change until the 2023 edition and therefore, new teams coming in will result in the present revenue cycle getting diluted.
b) With the 2021 edition of the league slated to begin anytime between last week of March and first week of April, there’s not enough time (just three-and-half months) to do a mega auction.
c) If one new franchise is brought in, it will result in 60 matches going up to 76, in the present format. If two new franchises are brought in, the number of matches will go up to 90 and a major concern is that the IPL window is too short to adjust these games.
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