IPL Governing Council to review number of matches

The IPL Governing Council will meet in Mumbai on Friday to discuss an agenda that includes the format of the 2011 tournament. While the meeting's main purpose is to approve the 2010 IPL financials, it is also scheduled to discuss the number of matches to be played next season, with the focus on reducing the players' workload.

"They will discuss the number of matches," a franchise official told Cricinfo. "But mostly, it will be dominated by the closing of accounts."

The rules and regulations for the 2011 tournament have been up in the air since the suspension of IPL chairman Lalit Modi. The league added two new teams for next year, increasing the total number of matches to be played on a home and away basis from 60 to 94. The greater workload for the players became a contentious issue after India's poor performance in the World Twenty20 this year, with some suggesting their exit from the tournament was a consequence of a hectic IPL schedule.

At the time, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, a member of the Governing Council, said they could consider reviewing the number of matches for the league next season. However, the franchises are opposed to a shorter tournament not only because playing fewer matches means the tournament will generate less revenue, but also because the original eight franchises only agreed to add the two new teams on the basis of more matches and a larger share of the pie.

"If they roll back on the number of matches but the number of teams remains 10, it is unfair to all," a franchise official said.

The board and the teams met in June this year to discuss their respective concerns and the BCCI set up a three-man committee consisting of Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi to make recommendations to the board based on their discussions with team owners. Gavaskar, Shastri and Pataudi are all members of the IPL Governing Council. The committee is expected to present is recommendations to the Governing Council tomorrow. The rules for player regulations, however, are, unlikely to be determined until after the Champions League in September.

The BCCI's finance and marketing committees are also meeting. For the first time in its history, the board has solicited bids for corporate sponsorship of all international cricket played by India in India for the next three years. The previous period's sponsorship rights were with World Sport Group, who sold the sponsorships on an individual tournament basis. Under the latest proposal, one company will become the exclusive sponsor of Indian cricket for the next three years.

The board has received bids from ten companies, including Airtel, Idea Cellular, Karbonn Mobile and MicroMax, according to a BCCI statement. The bids will be opened at the marketing committee meeting in front of the bidders.

"The reserve price has been fixed as Rs 2 crore ($428,815) per match." BCCI chief-executive Ratnakar Shetty told PTI