IPL franchises losing sleep as BCCI mulls starting IPL 2020 on March 28

All eyes are now on the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) next edition as the auction for the same came to an end earlier this week. The auction took place on 19th of this month in Kolkata. And just like the previous years, it was an exhilarating auction as it threw a number of surprises. While some big names like Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Chris Morris and others hit the jackpot, there were some other big names like Martin Guptill, Yusuf Pathan, Colin Munro and others who went unsold.

Cummins was the costliest player of the latest auction. Kolkata Knight Riders secured the services of the Australia pace spearhead by spending a staggering amount of INR 15.50 crore. Cummins is now also the costliest overseas player of all time in the IPL. Veteran leg-spinner Piyush Chawla was the costliest Indian player of the auction after Chennai Super Kings spent INR 6.75 crore to sign him up.

Franchises worried with start date of IPL 2020

While the fans and others are eagerly looking forward to the next edition of the IPL, the governing council of the tournament and the franchises are not on the same page as far as the start of the tournament is concerned. According to a report in India Today, the BCCI is looking at a March 28 start to the 2020 edition.

However, the franchises are losing sleep as two high-profile international series is set to be on at that time. Australia will be playing against New Zealand in three T20Is while England and Sri Lanka play two Test matches. If the BCCI goes ahead with its current plan, the franchises will miss the services of a number of big names for the starting part of the competition.

A senior official of one of the franchises said that the teams are hopeful of a favorable schedule since the calendar is not out yet. The official said the franchises are hopeful that the IPL Governing Council will go back to the old format of having doubleheaders through the tournament and start around April 1.

“See, while the Australia-New Zealand series ends with the final T20I being played on March 29, the second Test of the series between England and Sri Lanka technically ends only on March 31. In such a scenario, you start the season minus your big players and that isn’t a happy occasion. If we do start from April 1, the scenario looks so much better. Hopefully, the IPL GC will see what we are speaking about makes for a consideration,” the official said.

An official of another franchise said that at least four franchises had raised the issue during the briefing on the eve of the auction. “See, it is a scenario which the franchises realised isn’t very favorable and the matter was in fact debated by around 4 to 5 of the teams present as nobody wants to start on the back foot. But then, we can only hope. You might see an appeal from some of us as we still have around a couple of weeks to go before the calendar is released,” the official said.