Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ramiz Raja has confirmed that he will raise the issue of IPL’s expansion at the next ICC conference.
Following the conclusion of this year’s IPL, BCCI secretary Jay Shah confirmed that the league would be expanded. He stated that the BCCI will be getting a “two and a half month window” for the IPL in ICC’s next FTP cycle starting from 2024 till 2031.
Shah’s comments came immediately after the BCCI attracted the staggering revenue of Rs 48,390 crore for a five year period through IPL’s media rights. An extended IPL means the tournament will be extended to a 94-match affair, 20 more than what it is right now.
“From the next FTP cycle, IPL will have an official two-and-a-half-month window so that all the top international cricketers can participate. We have had discussions with various boards as well as the ICC,” Shah had told PTI after the commencement of the IPL media rights auction.
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Ramiz Raja-led PCB to oppose IPL expansion:
While most of the cricket boards are likely to support the BCCI, the PCB won’t do it. Ramiz Raja has confirmed that he would be challenging ICC’s decision to grant IPL an extended window from next year, if and when it is made public by the governing body of the game. Raja made it clear that the PCB would challenge any change forcefully if it is not fair to Pakistan cricket.
“There has been no announcement or decision as yet on the IPL window being increased. I will give my views on this issue at the ICC conference,” Ramiz Raja told reporters on Friday.
“My point is clear: if there is any development in world cricket that means we are being short-changed, we will challenge it in a very forceful manner and put our point across strongly in the ICC,” he added.
Raja further said that while Pakistan is keen on playing India, the political equation between the two countries are stopping the cricket boards to work on a bilateral series. He also revealed that Ganguly had invited him to attend the IPL final last year.
“I have spoken to Saurav (Ganguly) on the sidelines on this and I told him that presently there are three former cricketers heading their cricket boards and if they can’t make a difference who will?,” Raja said.
“Twice Ganguly has invited me to attend the IPL finals last year and this year and cricketing wise it made sense to go, but then, because of the situation, we had to look at the fallout of accepting the invitations,” he added.
India and Pakistan had last played a bilateral series way back in 2012/13 season when the latter visited India for a short limited-overs series. Since then, the arch-rivals have locked horns against each other only in Asia Cups and ICC tournaments.