Franchises told to submit player retention list till January 21; trading window will close on February, confirms IPL chairman Brijesh Patel

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has started preparations for hosting the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the month of April and May. As the Indian board has decided to expand the T20 Championship by adding two new teams next year, there will be no mega auction ahead of IPL 2021.

Thus, IPL governing council has formally told all the eight franchises to submit the final list of players they are keen on retaining for this edition of the Indian league by January 21. Brijesh Patel and the members of IPL GC were involved in a virtual meeting earlier this week where they discussed the planning and preparations of IPL 2021 at length.

Speaking about the main points discussed in the meeting, Patel stated that the trading window will close on February 4 for the franchises while the authorities are yet to finalize a date for hosting the auctions for the marquee tournament. It is speculated that the IPL 2021 auction will be conducted in the second or third week of February.

“We will have the players’ retention till January 21 and the trading window for the franchises closes on February 4,” Patel, the former India Test batsman said as quoted by Hindustan Times.

BCCI still not confident about hosting IPL 2021 in India

The 13th edition of the T20 Extravaganza was conducted in the month of September, October, and November in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) owing to the increased number of coronavirus cases in India. Thus, it is expected that BCCI can again consider UAE as India is still not prepared to host the marquee event.

However, a source close to the developments revealed that the governing council has decided to wait for a month and closely monitor the situation in India before deciding whether they should go ahead with hosting IPL 2021 in the country.

“The BCCI will wait for a month to see how the COVID-19 situation is in India before finalizing the schedule. Everyone wants it to be held in India but we still need to wait for some more time before taking a call,” a BCCI source said.