Reports: BCCI denies Guwahati from owning IPL team for upcoming edition

The 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) ended on November 10 and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has already pulled its socks up for the upcoming edition. In recent times, reports of adding news teams have also been doing the rounds and a concrete decision is set to be taken on November 24 during the BCCI Annual General Meeting (AGM).

Even as it’s known that the city of Ahmedabad would be one of the teams, provided the addition gets approved, Guwahati has also expressed their desire to own a team. Devajit Lon Saikia, the secretary of Assam Cricket Association (ACA), stated that Guwahati would be proposed as one of the teams during the AGM on Thursday.

However, if reports are to be believed, the BCCI may not agree to ACA’s request of Guwahati being a team. As per the world’s richest cricket board, apart from Ahmedabad, one among Pune, Lucknow and Kanpur would be the other team in the tournament.

Guwahati throws its hat in the ring for IPL 2021

“Teams are not granted to any state associations. BCCI AGM may approve the inclusion of 1 or 2 teams for the next edition. Ahmedabad will be one of the cities; other cities like Pune, Lucknow, Kanpur can also be included in the list. Inclusion of Guwahati in the list of potential cities at this stage is unlikely,″ a senior BCCI official was quoted as saying in InsideSport.

Earlier, it was learned that BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah were in favour of adding the new teams. However, a few members of the board felt that bearing in mind the less amount of time left, the addition of new teams may not be feasible.

“Time is too short for the introduction of the new teams for IPL in 2021. Tendering, players auction and most importantly getting all the stakeholders on the same page will be really challenging in a short time-span. We are of the view, any addition to the team should only happen for IPL 2022,″ a BCCI official mentioned.

“Ten teams will mean 94 matches in the home and away format. That implies a bigger window for the tournament, which may be tough given the current situation”, another BCCI official added.