After cash-rich IPL, BCCI considers another T20 league

The BCCI added two new teams to the IPL jamboree on Tuesday, with Sanjiv Goenka’s New Rising group winning the bid for the Pune franchise and Delhi-based Intex technologies getting the Rajkot franchise. The two new teams will replace the suspended Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for the next two season of IPL. Overwhelmed by the interest shown by corporate houses to invest in IPL, the BCCI is considering another T20 league to bring in more revenue.

"We are thinking about this, considering the number of people who wanted to own an IPL team," BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur told The Economic Times.

As per media reports a total of 21 corporate groups bought tender forms to buy one of the two teams. With Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals coming back into the league in 2018, there were talks of a ten-team IPL from 2018 season. However, Thakur rejected the idea by explaining the scheduling problems associated with it.

"If we have 10 teams, we will not be able to fit them in the IPL window and that would also mean more 4 pm games that do not bring in the kind of TRP the evening games do and the quality of the game too suffers," he explained, reported The Economic Times.

Thakur also pointed out that the T20 and ODI formats are bringing in good traction, however, the Test matches still remains a challenge.

"Look at the kind of sponsorship we are getting. This year, there was a 15-17% increase in sponsorship revenues for BCCI," he said. "This clearly shows that the steps we have taken in the last nine months are bringing back confidence among viewers as well as advertisers and sponsors," reported The Economic Times.

"The challenge lies in Test cricket. That is where we need to work hard to bring back viewership," he added.