Follow UsThe Indian Premier League (IPL) will soon be a full-fledged 94-match league, with the tournament running for nearly three months at a stretch. This would mean that every team will play the other twice on a home and away basis, which is not in practice right now, with only a total of 74 matches taking place.
"We've been discussing in the ICC, we've been discussing in-house with the BCCI. Given how the interest of the fans is changing with regard to bilateral and ICC events, in regard to franchise cricket and T20 cricket, we'll have to talk more seriously about it and see how we can create maximum value for the stakeholders of the game,” Arun Dhumal, the Chairman of the IPL was quoted as saying by ESPN Cricinfo.
"Ideally, we'd want a larger window, or to maybe go on from 74 to 84 or 94 at some point… So that every team gets to play against every team home and away. For that, you need 94 games,” he added.
Initially, it was planned that the number of matches would be increased from 74 to 84 by 2025, but that target could not be met.
Explaining the reason behind it, Dhumal said, "There's been so much cricket: we came back from Australia from a Test series, we had this Champions Trophy, and on top of that we have this IPL. That is why it was decided that it doesn't make sense from going from 74 to 84 [in 2025], but whenever we think that the time is opportune, we'll take that call."
There has been a dedicated window allotted to the IPL in the new Futures Tour Program (FTP) by the ICC. Thus, making changes before the 2028 edition would make no sense as that would also be the team when the new TV rights for the richest cricket league will be sold.
And who would Dhumal like to see as the new champion of the IPL? He would prefer a new team to win IPL 2025 - a team that had not won before.
"I would want somebody who has never won a tournament to lift the trophy this year. DC has done exceptionally well over the last few years, but they've not won. Punjab Kings made it to one final, and RCB, off and on, have done well. If some of these teams compete against each other in the final, we'll know for sure that we will have a new winner, then I'll be very happy with the tournament,” he said.