At the end of 2020, the board approved that the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League will incorporate two new teams. However, due to the suspension of IPL following the sudden increase of COVID-19 cases, the discussion has come to a halt.
While the whole of India was suffering in the wake of rising cases and unavailability of hospital beds, the IPL was still in action behind closed doors until recently, with the players in a bio-bubble. But it was not too long before the virus made its way through the bubble after multiple positive cases in a span of just two days.
As a result of which, the BCCI, in conjunction with the IPL governing council, decided to suspend the tournament indefinitely, keeping in mind the safety of the players and other stakeholders.
One question that emerged immediately following the suspension was the possibility of hosting the remainder of the season with a crunch international schedule for the Indian and foreign players. Another major challenge is the schedule of the ICC Men’s T20 World cup, which is also set to happen in India later this year.
The BCCI has unveiled that their priority is to devise a plan of action to complete the remaining matches, and the plans for floating tenders for the new Premier League teams are put on hold until a concrete decision has been over the former.
“Time is not right to even talk about the new IPL teams at this stage. We have to first decide the way forward on the suspended season and then only decisions can be taken on the new teams for IPL 2022.
No discussion in this regard is happening at this stage in the BCCI. We don’t see any moment on this before July. W
e can’t give any timelines at this stage. As I said, no discussion currently in this regard is taking place in BCCI for now,”
the official was quoted as saying by InsideSport.
This news is definitely a major setback to all the collaborators who were set to be involved with new teams. Establishing a new team is not an easy task and requires a considerable amount of time.
With a mega auction set to happen next year, the BCCI will surely hope to get done with this process as soon as possible to provide all the teams enough time to prepare for the auction.
