The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is likely to delay the mega auctions which was originally scheduled to take place on February 12 and 13.
The upcoming season of the IPL is going to be a 10-team affair with the addition of two new franchises. RPSG Group have bought the rights for Lucknow franchise for a whooping price of INR 7090 crore while the Ahmedabad franchise is bought by CVC Capitals for INR 5625 crores.
Due to the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, the BCCI has already postponed its domestic tournaments like Ranji Trophy.
The Board is currently thinking about delaying the mega auctions. But the reason is not due to the rising number of cases of Covid-19.
BCCI are trying to chalk out the right agreement with the owners of the Ahmedabad based franchise-CVC Capitals.
According to a report by Cricbuzz, “The protracted delay is only because of the efforts from the legal luminaries to find the right wordings for the fine print of the agreement and the broad consensus is understood to have been reached already. While there is an acknowledgement from all concerned that the issue is taking too much time but it is believed that the delay cannot be avoided.”
If reports are to be believed, the Board is planning to prepare the Plan B for the 15th edition of IPL. The Board is planning to host the entire tournament in Mumbai if the situation of the covid-19 in the country worsens.
The whole tournament could be held across three stadiums in Mumbai namely the Wankhede Stadium, CCI (Brabourne Stadium), and DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai.
The Board is not in favor of hosting the tournament in UAE again. The option of advancing the starting date by a week, from April 2 to March 25, is also being talked about.