Jay Shah made a big revelation about the future of Indian T20 League
Jay Shah: (Image Source: Twitter)
Following a successful media rights auction, the Indian Cricket Board is planning to have a bigger window for the Indian T20 League. From the next ICC FTP calendar, the Indian T20 League could be an 84-or even a 94-match competition. For the unversed, the current ICC FTP from 2018 to 2023, will conclude with the 2023 World Cup, scheduled to be held in India.
Shah said in an interview to PTI, “That is an aspect we have worked upon. Let me inform you that from the next ICC FTP calendar, IPL will have an official two-and-a-half month window so that all the top international cricketers can participate. We have had discussions with various boards as well as the ICC.”
“We are having discussions with various stake-holders,” Shah said. “There are also multiple proposals for all the Indian T20 League franchises of playing friendlies overseas. That idea is being seriously contemplated but for that we also need to speak to other boards as we would need to know the schedule of international players.”
With the Indian T20 league getting increased by a month or two, the International cricket calendar is likely to get affected. However, the board secretory has stated that the Indian Cricket Board will stay committed to International Cricket.
“Indian cricket will remain strong as long as world cricket remains strong – let me assure you of this,” he said. “The Indian Cricket Board is committed to international cricket. And it’s not just about India versus Australia or India versus England marquee series, we are committed to playing even the smaller nations.
“All bilateral international commitments across all formats will be honoured. We are playing Ireland in two T20 Internationals this month only. We want a strong robust international circuit and want to help the smaller cricketing nations by playing against them.”
More international games and a bigger Indian T20 League would mean that the Indian cricketers will be under a tremendous workload. The ones who play all formats are likely to have a hard time relaxing. However, the Indian Cricket Board is looking is trying hard to make life easier for all cricketers.
If reports are to be believed, there could be two Indian Cricket teams playing bilateral series at the same time.
“I have had discussions with NCA [National Cricket Academy] head VVS Laxman and we will always have 50 players in our roster,” Shah said. “In future, you will have a scenario, where the Indian Test team will be playing a series in one country and the white-ball team will be engaged in a series in a different country.
“We are going in that direction where we will have two national teams ready at the same time.”
