Another successful season of the Indian T20 League has finished and there are already talks of what the next seasons will look like. That’s how interested the stakeholders are in the league. Here is this piece, we are trying to speculate on what the future holds for the league and what can be expected immediately. Here’s how the Indian T20 League is shaping up.
ISSUE OF NEW MEDIA RIGHTS
The fact that the media rights deal is getting sold for twice or thrice the current amount tells us that the Indian T20 League is only going to grow from here, there’s no looking back. Straightaway, you know that the number of matches is going to increase. The set of 70-odd games that we witness every season won’t cut it for the broadcaster anymore and the new media deal will the league into the territory of 100 plus matches in a season.
This is the natural progression of a league when most broadcasting companies want a piece of the action.
EXTENSION OF THE INDIAN T20 LEAGUE CALENDAR
We’ve seen how American leagues go on for seven-eight months in a year and a similar pattern could be observed in the Indian T20 League. The days of having two separate windows in a single calendar year for the league isn’t far and that means the bilateral international cricket will have to take a backseat in the future. Former India coach, Ravi Shastri wants a stop to meaningless bilateral T20I series and only the World Cup to be played every two years where countries pick their teams based on the performances of their players in various T20 leagues across the globe, exactly how football functions.
Currently, the BCCI has confirmed that for the 2023 season, teams will revert to the home and away format. Meaning each team will play 18 games in the league followed by four playoff matches. So from the next season itself, we’ll see 94 games. That won’t be enough for the broadcasters in the future hence the talks of having two separate windows for the league makes sense and we could see more than 100 matches played in a season going ahead.
KNOCKOUT TOURNAMENT BEING PLAYED IN THE SECOND WINDOW
Another concept which is being discussed in the meetings of the governing council is the idea of having a knockout style Indian T20 League for the ten teams in the October-November window, just before the start of the Australian summer.
Teams will be put into two groups, five in one and a short tournament will be played in addition to the regular season conducted in the Indian summer. It will add to the spectacle as it will be a short two-three weeks knockout tournament and teams that didn’t win the regular season have a shot at redemption by winning this.
GETTING RID OF THE MEGA AUCTION
The Indian T20 League currently only attracts undivided attention during the season. Fans aren’t on the edge of their seats looking at potential trades their franchise could make in the off-season and that has to change going forward.
Getting rid of the mega auction will help as it will lead to continuity in the teams and fans can finally start following their teams rather than seeing wholesale changes every two-three seasons.
The mini-auction will continue adding to the player pool and at the same time, intra-league trades need to be incentivised. This is how it becomes a twelve month a year entity rather than just having the focus on the two months of the season.
Read: Team of the Season From the League Stage of Indian T20 League 2022
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