BCCI announces mini IPL for September

BCCI announces mini IPL for September by Rohan786 2016/06/25 12:47
Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise officials
woke up to a 'surprise development' on Friday
(June 24) morning when they learnt from the
media about the BCCI's plans to host 'IPL
Overseas' in September this year and make it an
annual affair.
On May 23, Times of India had reported about the
cricket board's plans to host a 'mini-IPL' in
September, following which a few IPL franchise
representatives had expressed surprise and said
they'd not been informed of any such
development yet.
On Friday, they had a similar reaction except that
this time, Anurag Thakur, the BCCI president, was
the one revealing the plans.
September is a rare month in the international
cricket calendar when almost all cricket nations
find space for a breather. It is for that reason that
the International Cricket Council (ICC) is also in
talks with a giant broadcaster to fit in a once-in-
two-years T20 WC during the same time.
"Either way you look at it, it's going to build up
into another battle for the September slot between
the BCCI and the ICC," said a cricket industry
executive tracking the developments.
The space for an overseas IPL was first created
last year when BCCI, in agreement with Cricket
Australia and Cricket South Africa, scrapped the
Champions League T20 which was bleeding
money for broadcasters Star India. Shashank
Manohar, the former BCCI president, had also
asked a couple of state cricket associations to
not plan their own T20 leagues (on the lines of
the Karnataka Premier League) and assured that
BCCI would float the 'mini-IPL' soon.
After that, given the onus on the Lodha
Committee report and the ongoing Supreme Court
mandate in the backdrop of the spot-fixing
scandal, all plans were swept aside.
Now that the BCCI is once again busy talking
about 'IPL overseas', the question is when will
they find the time to speak to the franchises
about it. "We have no clue. All we know is what
the media's reported," said two franchise officials
while one franchise owner's reaction was a simple
"what's that?" when asked for a reaction on the
'IPL overseas'.
Franchise representatives say that if the BCCI is
indeed serious about conducting such a
tournament from this year, they have to let them
know the details in terms of finances, operations,
player availability player fees and more. The
general feeling among most stakeholders,
including the franchises, is that the BCCI is
ignoring them while it is busy trying to appease
potential broadcasters.
"Champions League earned franchises half-a-
million dollars as appearance fees every year and
in turn, franchises had to pay their players 10% of
the IPL fee per season if the team qualified. The
entire operations were also managed by the BCCI,
logistics included. Is it going to work on the
same lines or any different, we have no clue," the
franchise official said.
source: ESPN