Ahead of the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is busy looking out for options to reutilize the T20 Champions League window, the tournament that was discontinued five years ago in the year 2014. For the same reason, BCCI is playing to conduct a mini-IPL so that all the teams can play more than the allotted time of two months.
As per a report by the Indian Express, the talks are underway of getting the two-month window for the home season. On November 5, the same was discussed at the BCCI-IPL governing council meeting. According to the minutes, IPL’s COO, Hemang Amin told the GC:
“The Champions League (CLT20) used to be played during the Sep/Oct window of around 15-20 days, however, CLT20 has discontinued five years ago, the last event being the CLT20-2014. The Asia Cup, which is another event hosted every alternate year, was generally played during June, however, after CLT20 was discontinued the Asia Cup is now played during the CLT20 window of Sep/Oct and ICC has also scheduled the T20 World Cup in 2020 (Australia) and 2021 (India) around the same time.”
He added:
“Since the Sep/Oct was CLT20 window, BCCI should look at utilizing this as a 2nd IPL window so the existing teams can have a longer participation instead of the two months and this will also entail that BCCI creates a new revenue stream which will be beneficial for the teams, BCCI and extension of brand IPL.”
Furthermore, Hemang Amin, also discussed whether IPL friendlies should be conducted against ICC associate members during the months of July and August. He said:
“Till date no such friendlies have been played, however, a number of teams have requested that IPL teams be allowed to play IPL friendlies against each other at an overseas location instead of playing against an ICC associate member as this will help explore the brand IPL outside of India and it will draw interest amongst the Indian diaspora and give them an opportunity to see IPL teams in action outside of India.”
However, BCCI’s secretary Jay Shah feels that the issue should be discussed with a larger group at an appropriate forum.
