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JAY-SHAH-GANGULY-BCCI
The 13th edition of the Indian Premier League concluded on November 10, and the BCCI has buckled for the forthcoming season. Over the past few days, reports of adding two news IPL franchises have also been doing the rounds. A concrete decision is going to take place on December 24 during the BCCI Annual General Meeting.
The city of Ahmedabad might be one of the teams if it gets approval from the officials. Guwahati has also expressed its desire to own a franchise. The secretary of Assam Cricket Association, Devajit Lon Saikia, has stated that Guwahati is likely to be one of the teams during the AGM on Thursday.
According to the reports, BCCI might not agree to ACA’s request of Guwahati being a team. As per the world’s richest cricket board, apart from Ahmedabad, one among the units could be Pune. Lucknow and Kanpur are the other possible teams in the tournament.
Guwahati publicly announce their participation in IPL 2021
A BCCI official recently said that the teams are not approved by any state associations. In the AGM, BCCI may authorize the inclusion of one or two teams for the upcoming IPL edition. Ahmedabad is one of the cities and other cities like Pune, Lucknow, Kanpur can also be included in the list. The addition of Guwahati to the list of potential towns at this stage is questionable.
A little while ago, it came to notice that BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah were in favor of adding the new IPL teams. However, a few other members of the board also indicated that there is less amount of time left. The inclusion of new teams may not be possible this season.
The BCCI official further stated that time is too short for the initiation of the new teams for IPL in 2021. Bidding, players auction, and the most critical task would be getting all the stakeholders on the same page. This is going to be challenging in a short time-span. The board is in the view that any addition to the team should only happen for IPL 2022.
The inclusion of ten IPL franchise will mean 94 matches in the home and the away format. However, this will imply a much bigger window for the tournament. It can also be challenging considering the ongoing COVID Pandemic. The BCCI earlier hosted a 10-team IPL back in 2011, with Kochi Tuskers and Pune Warriors as two additional teams.