After the suspension of IPL 2021 in May, because of the Covid crises in the country, IPL fans are anxiously waiting for it to resume. The announcement has already been done to resume the remaining of IPL 2021 which will happen in the September-October window in UAE.
With this announcement, BCCI already started working on IPL 2022 season. BCCI has finally opened up that there will be some big changes in the IPL 2022 tournament with some expansion as well. At the beginning of this year, it was already announced that BCCI will be introducing two new franchises in the tournament & the mega auction was supposed to happen at the end of May 2021. But because of the Covid crises & disruption of the whole schedule, BCCI postponed the whole plan.
Finally, after so much speculation, BCCI has given a heads up for a mega auction for IPL 2022. Each franchise spends sleepless nights ahead of a mega auction – where a majority of players are up for grabs with a cap on the number of players who can be retained by each franchise.
New Player Retention Plan for IPL 2022
As per the report, for next year’s tournament, the franchises would be allowed to retain a maximum of four players each. As per the conditions, the team management can either retain three Indian players and one overseas player or two Indian players and two overseas players. The franchises would deduct the salaries of these four players before entering the auction. In case if a franchise retains three players, Rs 15 cr, Rs 11 cr, and Rs 7 cr would be the salary structure of those players, Rs 12.5 cr and Rs 8.5 cr if two players are retained; and Rs 12.5 cr if only one player is retained.
Introduction of Two New Franchises
According to BCCI, in mid of August, a tender document will be opened to introduce two new franchises for the tournament & after two months the names of these franchises will be announced. The Mega Auction will occur in December 2021 & finally, in mid-January, tender document for media rights sale would be brought out.
Kolkata-based RP-Sanjiv Goenka, Adani group headquartered in Ahmedabad, Aurobindo Pharma Limited, stationed in Hyderabad, and the Torrent Group operating from Gujarat have already shown interest in buying the franchises.
The BCCI will also magnify the salary purse of all the franchises from INR 85 to 90 crores, meaning there would be an increase of INR 50 crores to the total pool amongst ten franchises. The teams must spend a minimum of 75% of the allotted purse.
For now, IPL 2021 is about to resume where Rishabh Pant’s Delhi Capitals is leading the charts followed by Chennai Super Kings & Royal Challengers Bangalore. Defending champions Mumbai Indians are on number four as of now. These four teams are the front runner of the show & unexpectedly Sunrisers Hyderabad are at the bottom-most.
IPL 2021 will resume in UAE in September – October & the new schedule will be announced very soon by The BCCI.
