Although the fourteenth edition of the IPL is currently not over yet, preparation has been ongoing for the upcoming edition of the tournament. The current edition of the Indian Premier League is still yet to finish as it had to be suspended mid-way due to the rising spread of the second wave of the pandemic in India. It was announced by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that the 2022 edition of the tournament will see the participation of two new teams, which shall take the total number of teams in the tournament to 10.
The Indian Premier League, which had started in 2008, has gained fame across the cricketing world for the glitz and money associated with it. Along with that, it has also popularised the shortest format of the game, the T20 hugely. Many other similar cricketing tournaments have now started in other parts of the world as well including Australia, Pakistan, and West Indies. Let us have a look at the various details of this particular announcement.
New teams in IPL 2022
The BCCI has been reportedly trying to complete the sale of the two teams in July itself. This means that the sale would be over before the end of the current edition of the tournament. It should be mentioned here that the remainder of the current portion of the tournament will be resuming from the 18th of September, 2021 in the United Arab Emirates. A total of 31 matches will be played in the remaining part of the tournament. Given the history of the tournament, there would be many who would be interested in buying new teams.
As per the latest reports available, these two franchises could go to Ahmedabad and Lucknow-Kanpur. Incidentally, this is not the first time that ten teams are participating in the IPL. The 2011 edition of the tournament saw the participation of 10 teams as well. 2012 and 2013 saw the participation of nine franchises each. The inclusion of ten teams in the tournament will certainly boost the level of competition in the Indian Premier League. This will certainly be something that the fans will look forward to. Although the price of each franchise has not been specified yet, there have been preliminary reports about the possible prices available.
One person, who is interested in buying a franchise has claimed that there is a chance that a total of 250 million might be the base price of each price. IPL 2022 will be the fifteenth edition of the tournament and it will see the restructuring of the teams due to the mega-auction that shall be held this time.
IPL 2022 Mega Auction
The mega auction will reportedly take place in December 2021 and January 2022. Although many details have not been made available of the mega auction, reporters have gotten hold of some details. This time, the mega auction might see the participation of more players as the number of franchises has also increased. Players who will play well now will have a lot of chances to get a good price for themselves in the auction.
As per the rules, each franchise will have the chance of retaining a total of five players. Among these five players, two will be retained using a special card called the Right To Match (RTM) card. They will generally be allowed to retain only three players. A total of three capped Indian players can be retained by each team. There has not been clarity on the number of players for each time or the total purse value for each team in this auction. As per the rules of IPL 2021, each team could have a maximum of 25 players and a minimum of 18. This might be changed in the course of this edition of the auction.
On the other hand, the total purse value of each team in the IPL 2021 auction was 85 crores. It could be raised during this auction as per the latest reports. There is also a chance that the BCCI and the IPL governing council will raise the retaining price of the first choice retention players. Players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli fetch huge amounts of retaining prices. Sharma and Dhoni get paid 15 crores while Kohli gets paid 17 crores for each season, which is quite a huge sum.
Conclusion
A lot of changes will be underway in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League. With the reshuffling of teams and the addition of two more franchises, the competition is set to get more intense. Fans of the tournament will definitely have a lot of reasons to look forward to this edition.
