New Delhi, August 12: The IPL is set to undergo some changes next year and be a significantly different entity than it was in 2011.
ICL Players allowed
The IPL governing council which had good news for the the former ICL players, who were allowed to participate in the IPL next year. However, their participation in the tournament would be possible only after the approval of BCCI. The former ICL players belonging to the domestic category would be paid between $18,000-45,000 – which is around Rs.8 lakhs-Rs.20 lakhs. The international players, which include both Indian and foreign players, would be available for auction.
Icons on the way out
When it was launched in 2008, some of the Indian players were designated ‘icons’, and were not available for the auction – being instead assigned to their home teams and also enjoying a 15% pay hike over the next highest paid cricketer in the home team. However, that arrangement was for the first 3 years, and come 2011, there will be no ‘Icon’ players. The players – Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, Yuvraj and Sehwag – would be just like any normal player in the IPL, and be available for auction and trading.
New Teams to be added
From 2011 onwards, two new teams will be added, and the IPL will expand from being an 8-team, 60-match affair to a 10-team 94-match one. Each franchise will be playing 18 preliminary matches, instead of 14 games as in the past.
New Venues
Four new venues and a third place play-off match will be introduced in the third Indian Premier League. The four venues are: Nagpur, Vishakhapatnam, Ahmedabad and Dharamsala. There is also a likelihood that of the two new teams added, both would assigned one of the four new venues as ‘home’ venues.
Strategic Time-out
The much decried and derided ‘strategy break’ (or advertisement break as some call it), is going to be modified. The earlier break was for seven and a half minutes at the 10 over mark during both innings, leading to a total of 15 extra minutes. However, now there will be two breaks of two and a half minutes each during each innings. The first break will be taken by the fielding team between overs 6-10, while the second break will be taken by the batting team between overs 11-16.
Fresh Auctions
At the end of the 2010 season, there would be fresh auctions for the players and with the new teams being added, there would be 10 teams bidding.
The two new franchises will be added through an auction to be held next January, while the player auction for the fourth season, with a new salary cap, will be held in the summer of 2010 to allow squads to integrate.
Some things that will not change though are the ‘foreigners’ rule, which states that only 4 foreign players can be a part of the final playing eleven. The time-frame of the tournament – around 45 days – is also expected to remain more or less constant, even with the addition of the newer teams.
—–Agencies