UAE is also being considered by the BCCI.
By Sreekanth A. Nair
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to conduct a mini Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament overseas in September every year, and it’s likely to be held in the United States.
The decision was taken at the working committee meeting of the BCCI held in Dharamsala, Punjab on Thursday, where the board is holding its first annual cricket conclave.
“The BCCI has decided to host a truncated IPL every September starting from this year,” BCCI president Anurag Thakur told reporters after the meeting. “[It will be] a shorter format, not home and away matches but a lesser number of matches; in a two-week window we will be able to complete it,” he added.
The board is trying to utilize the time window it has got after scrapping the champions league T-20 in 2014 for widening the fan base of cricket outside India and capitalize on the popularity of the mini cricket format. Champions’ league T-20 was held around September-October.
The exact dates and venues of the tournament will be decided later. But, according to a report in The Indian Express, the US tops the list of possible venues for the mini IPL.
“Space can be created on the cricket calendar because the T20 Champions League has been scrapped. We are proposing that all eight teams participate in the mini-IPL. The venue has not been finalized but the US is one of the options,” a BCCI official told the daily on condition of anonymity.
The board is also considering other venues including the UAE where a large community of Indian migrants is living.
The BBCI has previous experience in successfully conducting IPL overseas. In 2009, the board had taken the main edition of the IPL to out of India considering the security issues as it was an election year.
“Teams have been sounded about the proposal to conduct the mini-IPL. They are keen to broaden their fan base and increase the popularity of the league in other parts of the world, too,” the official told the Indian Express.