There’s still a little over a week to go before the suspended IPL commissioner fate is decided one way or the other, but the Board of Control for Cricket in India is already gearing up for life post-Lalit Modi.
It is starting by calling the heads of all ten franchises for a meeting with top board officials to not only acquaint the former with a relatively new IPL administration led by interim chief Chirayu Amin, but also to chart out a roadmap for Season Four.
“BCCI president Shashank Manohar and IPL interim chairman Chirayu Amin desire to meet the owners of the IPL franchise to discuss matters pertaining to the IPL,” a board communique issued to the franchises said.
Even though the BCCI is in no rush to undo the decisions made by the IPL governing council in Modi’s tenure, there are a number of unresolved problems that were pushed on the backburner after the latter’s suspension. The most problematic of them is player retention. The IPL had announced last December that the players will be re-auctioned before IPL-4, but the teams are still unsure on exactly how many players they’ll able to retain, if any.
“The franchises will be speaking to the IPL administration after a long time so one can expect the teams to be prepared with a wishlist of what they want sorted out before the next season,” a franchise official told this newspaper on Wednesday. “As far as we’re concerned, all players should go back into the auction pool so that it is fair on all 10 teams.”
While most of the franchises want to start afresh, there are a few who want the option of being able to keep their two biggest buys.
Teams can only spend $7 million in the auction, but there is no limit on the amount spent on players outside the auction pool.
Another area of concern is squeezing all the matches into the fixed six-week period. Two new teams - Pune and Kochi - will be added from next season, and if the existing format is followed, the 60-game event would become a 94-game one.
It is a tricky issue for the board since the franchises are against decreasing the number of games. “It will hamper our revenue. We won’t let that happen,” said a team official. As of now, each team receives 10 per cent of the central sponsorship, with 20 per cent going to the IPL.
The board is, however, understood to be contemplating the possibility of splitting the teams in two groups so that players don’t burn out.