The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises gave expressed their displeasure against BCCI’s decision to change the timings of the daily matches – by pushing the 4 pm game to a 5.30 pm start and by bringing forward the 8 pm game to 7 pm – at the request of STAR India.

As per the reports of TOI, the three franchises said, “we heard it from the media about the match timings being changed. The least the BCCI could’ve done is engaged with the teams before taking a decision like that.”

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The league’s new broadcaster – Star India – is well within its rights to call for a change in match timings if it helps to increase the viewers’ interest. However, the fault here clearly lies with the Governing Council of the BCCI in not discussing it with the teams earlier who are incidentally 50 percent stakeholders in the new IPL revenue model.

One of the sources of TOI also said, “The franchises are not in agreement with this proposal and will take it up with the IPL. They are in fact quite not very happy that something as important as this hasn’t even discussed with them.”

The broadcaster, nevertheless, will be more happy with the GC accepting their request for the change in timings. An early start will mean an early conclusion to the matches in the night and therefore if a game gets extended, it will still remain under the prime-time coverage.

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Meanwhile, the IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla made it clear that at this stage, he said, “The IPL Governing Council considered the request of the broadcaster to have a 7 pm match. The final decision will be taken after the taking the views of the other stakeholders.”

Shukla concluded by saying that STAR India’s proposal will be considered further, he said, “Star Sports is of the view that the matches need to start early to ensure that the people in the interiors watch the action too. It wil improve the ratings.”