Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) set the ball rolling for the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Wednesday when it decided to hold the players auction on January 8-9 in Mumbai, and the tournament from April 8 to May 22 next year.
More importantly, the T20 league would feature eight teams and the number of matches have been revised to 60, same as the third season.
The pruning down of the schedule — the matches were increased to 74 in September — was on expected lines following the scrapping of Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab last month.
However, the conditions regarding player retention were retained by the IPL governing council which met here on Wednesday.
So has been the format of the top-four teams playing in a three-way knock-out to decide who qualifies for the summit clash.
As per the September 5 decision, the existing teams would be allowed to retain a maximum of four players including one foreigner from their squad for 2010; but the teams would lose $1.8 million for the first player retained and a maximum of $4.5 million against the common salary cap of $9 million.
The auction is likely to be on the scale of the first one, held in 2008, with teams starting largely from scratch, and will be held under rules framed in September. One difference will be the absence of “icon” players — originally, five franchises had one player each named as its icon.
The auction was initially to have been held this month but uncertainty over certain issues led to the postponement.
The issue of Kochi franchise, which has been given a 30-day termination notice, was not taken up for discussion, BCCI vice president and IPL governing council member Rajeev Shukla said.
“They (Kochi franchisee) have been given a deadline till November 27 to respond to the notice. So, it was not on the agenda at all,” he said after the governing council meeting.
The statement issued by the BCCI did not mention it but it’s understood that the decisions, where applicable, were for the next three seasons.
After months of speculation about the number of teams that would participate in 2011, the debate now would be on, apart from the fact that 2011 season starts within six days’ time after the World Cup final on April 2, the eighth franchise and the method the BCCI would adopt to identify it.
Kochi is all but out — although another 10 days remain for the deadline, promoters Rendezvous Sports World Pvt. Ltd. and the investors in the consortium are nowhere near solving their differences — of the IPL.
A fresh auction will be held for the new team.
But any decision to invite fresh bids might have to wait till the BCCI sorts out its legal disputes with Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab, who have challenged their termination in the Bombay High Court.
Venue wise, Ahmedabad would be a strong contender for various reasons.
It’s the home of Gujarat Cricket Association headed by chief minister Narendra Modi and also the base of Adani Group of companies which failed in its bid for Pune earlier this year.
Mohali, where the I.S. Bindra-led Punjab Cricket Association is headquartered, could make a come back as well, should KXIP and BCCI arrive at an agreement.
