India’s former coach Ravi Shastri has proposed some changes that he desired the International cricket boards to follow. He wants BCCI to organise two IPL seasons each year and bilateral series should be reduced and international cricket must be restricted to only ICC tournaments.
The IPL media and broadcasting rights for the next five-year cycle are going to go up for sale this month.
What Ravi Shastri actually said
“That’s the future (two IPL seasons every year). It could be tomorrow – 140 games, split 70-70. In two seasons. You never know. That’s the way it’s going to go. That’s the way it’s developed as a beast of a property. And you cannot hide away from that.“
“There’s too much of bilateral stuff going on in T20 cricket. I’ve said that [before], even when I was the coach of India, I could see it happening in front of my eyes. It should go the football way, where, in T20 cricket, you just play the World Cup. Bilateral tournaments – no one remembers. I don’t remember a single game in the last six-seven years as coach of India, barring the World Cup. A team wins the World Cup, they will remember it. Unfortunately, we didn’t, so I don’t remember that either.“
“Where I am coming from is: you play franchise cricket around the globe; each country is allowed to have their franchise cricket, which is their domestic cricket, and then, every two years, you come and play a World Cup.”
IPL 2022 finally came to an end this Sunday with 74 games. Gujarat Titans lifted the IPL Cup in their debut season. Shastri strongly believes that cricket needs to follow the football model and franchise games should be on the top of their priority list instead of countries playing against each other.
BCCI on the other hand plans to extend IPL to a three-month tournament. Every team will get a chance to play 18 games in the league stage instead of 14. BCCI haven’t thought about the two-season model theory yet.
Do you think the BCCI is going to take Ravi Shastri’s suggestions?
Read more: IPL 2022: Best XI of this season
