Ahmedabad appears to have come closer to getting an Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, but the wait may have just got a little longer. The BCCI's governing body ratified the addition of two new franchises in the IPL to make it a 10-team affair - but announced that the new teams will be introduced in the 2022 IPL only.
Speculation of Ahmedabad being the front-runner for getting an IPL franchise in the event of the league’s expansion has been rife for quite some time. The annual general meeting (AGM) of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) held in Ahmedabad recently gave it a further boost. The board members, however, agreed that there was not enough time left to add a new team for the 2021edition, which is only about four months away, as the process will require going through an elaborate tender-floating process, scheduling the increased number of matches and ensuring that all foreign player international calenders are adjusted. “We have received an in-principle approval to add two more teams after talking to all the stakeholders,” said a senior BCCI functionary after the AGM.
The board’s decision to set a cap of one franchise per state virtually rules out Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, West Bengal, Rajasthan, and the union territories of Delhi and Chandigarh. Informed sources said the other international match venues like Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Visakhapatnam, Kochi and Lucknow would be favourites to host the new franchises. Indian conglomerates Adani Group and RP Sanjiv Goenka Group are believed to have shown interest in buying new teams.
