The last week was a busy one for the new-look IPL governing council, which sat down to discuss suggested tweaks ahead of IPL 2020. Manoj Narayan takes a closer look at the proposals.
IPL 2020 is a few months away, but the buzz around the tournament is already high – especially with plenty of changes rumoured ahead of the 13th edition of the tournament next year. Some of these changes are radical – they can match The Hundred in giving the traditionalists plenty of ammunition – and, as always with the IPL, some come with dollar signs attached.
It is important to note, though, that these are only proposals at the moment, being reported in the media. Not all have been confirmed and not all of them will come to fruition. The BCCI will still need to sign off on the ones that go through to it. That said, we take a look at what these changes might entail.
The no-ball umpire
In another first, the new IPL governing council is keen to allow teams to play friendlies overseas before the main tournament, as long as these friendlies don’t have any official IPL tag associated with it.
According to the report in the Times of India, the franchises have for long been keen to spread their wings, and ahead of the next edition, it seems Mumbai Indians approached the BCCI with a request to sanction them playing a match in Canada.
The BCCI has always been steadfast in its refusal to allow contracted players to participate in overseas tournaments, but this could see them loosen their leash a bit.
What do we think? The IPL has, since its inception, been inspired by the Premier League. This idea will be another one that follows in the path of the premiership teams, and how they use pre-season friendlies to market themselves in Asia. Only, instead of Asia, the IPL teams are likely to target the expat population in Canada, as Mumbai Indians are interested in doing, and the Caribbean, where Kolkata already have interests in. From a marketing perspective, for the growth of the IPL brand and franchises, this could be huge.
The question, as always in cricket these days, is how this will be squeezed into an already packed schedule. India’s domestic season is already in full swing, and the peak is yet to come. Meanwhile, international cricket carries on like a juggernaut, with teams preparing for next year’s T20 World Cup. That means, inevitably, it’s the players who will have to compromise, as this will likely eat into their period of rest, or it will be second-string teams at the friendlies. The BCCI has to consider that as well.
