Updated: December 24, 2020 9:56:44 pm
BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and Secretary Jay Shah at the 2020 IPL Awards Ceremony. (Archive)
Among the issues discussed and raised at the 89th Annual General Body Meeting of the Cricket Control Board in India (BCCI) was the number of teams in the Indian Premier League. On Thursday at the AGM in Ahmedabad, the cricket body approved the 10-team tournament starting from the 2022 edition.
The members deliberated on the addition of two new teams to the Indian Premier League (IPL). According to sources, Ahmedabad, which is said to have the world’s largest cricket stadium in Motera with a capacity of 110,000 seats, will almost certainly have a new IPL team.
Read: Tax exemption for T20 World Cup, new IPL teams on the BCCI agenda
In another important development, the Board initially decided to endorse the ICC’s offer for the inclusion of cricket, in the T20 format, in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games after obtaining clarification from the International Olympic Committee.
All first-class players, both male and female, will be adequately compensated for the short national season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. BCCI plans to launch the national season, after several months of delay, in January with the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 championship.
In other decisions, the veteran leader of Congress, Rajiv Shukla, was officially appointed Vice Chairman of the Board in place of his protégé Mahim Verma of Uttarakhand.
It also emerged that the general body decided in favor of Sourav Ganguly continuing as director on the ICC Board. Secretary Jay Shah will be the alternate director and representative of India at the meetings of the Chief Executive Committee of the world body.
Some of the other key decisions made during the AGM are as follows:
- The Election Officer, Mr. AK Joti announced the election of Rajeev Shukla as Vice President of the BCCI. In addition, Brijesh Patel and KM Majumdar were unanimously re-elected as representative members of the IPL Governing Council by the General Body.
- Pragyan Ojha, who was nominated by the Indian Cricket Players Association (ICA) as the player’s representative, was inducted into the IPL Governing Council at AGM.
- The BCCI also increased the reimbursement limit for retired first-class cricketers’ insurance medical claim to INR 10 lakhs.
- The retirement age of BCCI-affiliated referees and scorers has also been increased to 60 years.
Likewise, the General Body authorized the BCCI Delegates to decide on the following matters:
- Appointment of the Cricket Committee, Standing Committees and Referees Committee.
- BCCI representative to the ICC Board of Directors or any similar organization.
- Establishment of the new National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru and the subsequent plan to establish zonal academies.
- Decide the venues for the next ICC T20 2021 World Cup.
- Decide on the national BCCI 2020-21 season and form a task force to compensate players, match officials and others involved in cricket activity if they are unable to participate due to cancellation of cricket matches / tournaments due to COVID -19.
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