Punjab’s co-owner demands a major change in the Indian T20 League
The Indian Cricket Board had a memorable day when the media rights for the Indian T20 League were sold at Rs 48390 crore from the e-auction, nearly three times more than the previous cycle. Indian Cricket Board secretary, Jay Shah also said that a 74-day timeline will be provided for this tournament in coming years and the matches could be extended up to 94 matches.
Now, the co-owner of the Punjab franchise, Ness Wadia came out with a demand for making a major change in this tournament. As per his view, it will help this tournament to be more interesting. Speaking to PTI, he congratulated Jay Shah and expressed his wish for future improvements.
“More home games and a bigger season” – Ness Wadia
Speaking to PTI, he said that this tournament needs to be bigger and for that, the number of home games needs to be increased. Even, it should be conducted in two halves, one half in India and another one in some other country. He said: “Indian T20 League has taken cricket to the global level. The Indian T20 League has provided the spark cricket needed and made it a global sport. It will get even bigger. I really see a much longer season which is long overdue. If you can’t have a long season of four months why not look at two seasons, one in India and one in a different country every year. Indians are everywhere around the world. There is huge potential for having many more games,”
He also added that as the tournament is now at par with EPL in terms of revenue, then a bigger window should be considered. He said: “It is a logical reason. How much are seven matches at home? Too few in my opinion. There has to be a bigger window. In per match value, the Indian T20 Leauge is bigger than EPL now and look at the number of games each team plays there (38).”
“I would say it is already happening. There is no doubt that will eventually happen. The Indian T20 League has revived, grown, and globalized cricket. And believe me, it is the tip of the iceberg. The tournament is around for 15 years and the window should have become bigger many years ago. It is long overdue. And it will happen. For how long can you keep the genie in the bottle.” Ness concluded.
