Voice of cricket Harsha Bhogle has commented on the rumoured ten team IPL next year. He feels that there is no need of ten team tournament right now as the IPL is doing well as it is without them. He feels that if the nine team tournament can add to the revenue of the league, they should do it. But having a tenth team will make the league go to over 94 matches in a single season. This was seen in the early stages of the IPL where 10 teams were played in the IPL. This addition will also make it confusing for a lot of people as it changes the rules for the number of matches each team plays against each other.
The last time this was tried, the rule was that the team will be divided into two groups and each team will play a home and a away game against the same group team, but will play only one match against all the teams in the other group. Harsha feels that this will make it confusing for the people to understand this rule. He added that the IPL is known for its simplicity and this change can affect it’s popularity.He then commented about the talks of mega auction happening ahead of the next IPL. He said that he is personally not a big fan of constant mega auctions. He feels that the players are nurturing under a specific environment, the bonding with other players is also increasing as they spend more time together, the fan loyalty which is big part of the IPL is also there and a mega auction changes everything suddenly.
He gave Ishan Kishan’s example while talking about this. He said that Kishan has been around with the MI franchise for almost three years now. He was the talk of the town when the Mumbai Indians franchise got him for a stunning 6.2 crores. He went ahead to mention a few more players like Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya from MI, added names of Varun Chakraborty, Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti from KKR. He said that if a mega auction takes place suddenly all these players are gone and the teams wouldn’t want to loose the players they have nurtured for all these years and one day use all the tactics they taught them would be used against them by the player.
The teams should be made to find the talented individuals from all across the country, scout them, guide them, build them for few years and then enjoy the service they provide to the team for many years. Harsha feels that the IPL and the franchises will play a huge role in developing Indian cricket and they should be rewarded for it.
He also added that the IPL should have a ten year plan for going forward and eventually having 12 teams to play and conduct the IPL periodically with a five – six month window in coming years.
Ahmedabad Plane Crash