The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has planned to add two more franchises in the Indian Premier League from the next season. The increment in the number of teams will result in the league taking 10-15 more days to be completed. The expansion of the league is expected to overlap with the Future Tour Programme (FTP) of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
According to Hindustan Times, the tournament will stretch from 60 games to 74 games with teams divided into two groups of five each.
A BCCI official told Hindustan Times, “We are not ready for 94 matches yet. Our broadcasters are not ready. There are issues around overseas player availability and finding a suitable window. We will consider a bigger window in future years.”
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ICC’s FTP has no official window for the IPL and international teams can schedule their series in that phase. If such a situation arises, the teams will be either have to call their players back or play without them.
“A lot of series are lined up in March and June 2022, the months in which the tournament (normally played across April and May) could be extended to in case of increase in the number of matches. That has to be taken into consideration,” said a former member of the IPL Governing Council to IANS.
The ICC, which has no dedicated window for the IPL since it is a domestic event, confirmed to IANS on Monday that the upcoming meeting of its Board on July 15 will not have the extended IPL on its agenda. It means that the boards will have to sort it out on their own.
India and eight other countries, that send players to IPL, will be playing in the months of March, May, and June next year as per the ICC’s 2018-2023 FTP.
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Australia, Bangladesh, South Africa, India, New Zealand, and Afghanistan are scheduled to play international cricket in March 2022. On the other hand, England and New Zealand are in line to play cricket in May 2022. Australia, India Bangladesh, New Zealand, and England are also scheduled to play international cricket in June and July.
Although Pakistan, Netherlands, Ireland, and Zimbabwe are also scheduled to play international cricket during the phase, their players don’t feature in IPL. Pakistan players are barred while the other three teams’ players don’t generally find takers from IPL franchises.
