This year, the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 was held in three cities in the UAE. The final match was played between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals at the Dubai Cricket Stadium, in which the Mumbai Indians, captained by Rohit Sharma, defeated Delhi to capture the IPL title for a record fifth time. Before the final match on November 10, it was rumored that BCCI would add two new franchises to the league in the IPL in 2021. However, according to a new report, BCCI is no longer in favor of adding new teams to IPL 2021 and new teams are likely to join in 2022.
According to a report in the Times of India, the BCCI has said that the time to launch two new teams in IPL 2021 is too short and an auction is yet to take place. There will be a lot of hassle in joining two new teams. Due to this, the board has decided that the Indian Premier League will be organized in IPL 2021 with 8 teams and in the year 2022 season with 10 teams. It also said that BCCI could organize the action between February and April before the IPL starts. Adding two new teams to IPL 2021 will benefit the board and the O8 franchisees as both will survive this mega auction.
As the duration of teams joining increases, the board will have the advantage of having the ease of selling title sponsorship rights. Dream 11 has the title sponsorship at the moment. Giving another reason, the board said that their contract with Star Sports is coming to an end in 2021, so the IPL could be possible in 2022 with new teams. If IPL happens with 10 teams then its value will increase even more. 10 teams means a total of 94 matches in the tournament. So in the current situation it does not seem possible. With the completion of IPL 2020, the discussion that the Ahmedabad franchise would join as the 9th team of the IPL gained momentum, while Kanpur, Lucknow and Pune were in the race for the 10th team.
