The Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) governing body on Thursday ratified the entry of two new franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL) to make it a 10-team affair from 2022 during its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Ahmedabad.
"Two new teams will be introduced in the 2022 IPL," a Board source told PTI. The reason for delaying the introduction of the new teams from 2021 to 2022 is said to be that most stakeholders felt that the teams will not have enough time to build a competitive side, as per reports.
"There are a lot of modalities that needs to be discussed and most of the stakeholders feel that with IPL being held in April, there is very little time for a mega auction and to have a uniform retention policy, agreeable to all the existing franchises," a senior BCCI official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
The BCCI also provided in principle backing to the International Cricket Council's (ICC) bid for inclusion of T20 cricket in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics "after getting some clarifications from the International Olympic Committee".
It was also decided that all first-class players, both men and women, will 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. In fact, the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) released its squad for the tournament scheduled to begin in January. The state’s team will be led by Dinesh Karthik.
In other decisions, veteran Congress leader Rajiv Shukla was officially anointed the Board's Vice President in place of his protege Mahim Verma from Uttarakhand. It was also learnt that the general body decided in favour of Sourav Ganguly continuing as a director in the ICC Board.
Secretary Jay Shah will be the alternate director as well as India's representative at the Chief Executive Committee meets of the global body.