At the end of the BCCI’s working committee meeting in Dharamsala, President Anurag Thakur made an important announcement regarding a new tournament to be held in the month of September. The tournament will be a shorter form of the IPL and will involve all the eight teams participating in it.
Announcing the tournament, the BCCI President said,” We have decided to host a mini IPl or overseas IPL which will be held in other countries. We will have all the eight teams participating in it and is different from the regular format followed in the IPL season. There will not be any home and away matches. It will be a shorter format and the tournament will be completed within a two-weeks window”.
After scrapping the Champions League last year, a small window has been left vacant in September. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) looks to make use of this gap to conduct a short tournament, preferably away from home.
An interesting thing to note is that, this time India’s home season is set to begin from September. Also, the iconic Duleep Trophy has been scheduled to be held in the same month. The tournament gained significance as top players from the national side will feature in the games, which will be played with a pink-ball. The decision seems to have been taken to make the young players familiar to Pink-ball under the flood-lights, before their first ever day-night test match in November.
It will be interesting to know how the board manages its international schedule, following the announcement of a mini IPL tourney in September.
