IPL will maintain status quo for the next eight years

Cricket Australia (CA) chairman Wally Edwards has said that the Board of Control for Cricket in India(BCCI) has made an unofficial “commitment” to non-expansion of the Indian Premier League(IPL) over the next 8 years, thereby allaying any fears of the BCCI turning the T20 tournament into a competitor to international cricket.

The BCCI is believed to have made a promise that the IPL will not stretch beyond its current dates or be held over a larger window in the foreseeable future.

“There was a very real chance that India would have gone on an IPL voyage and left world cricket behind. That was said more than once,” Edwards told ESPNcricinfo during the recently completed Newlands Test. “If that had have happened, you were looking down the barrel of a Kerry Packer moment. It would have been easy to say ‘they aren’t going to do it, they want to play in World Cups’, but that was a reality.

“We have a commitment from them that IPL will not change during this eight-year cycle. Dates won’t change, the start date won’t change and the length of the tournament won’t change. They’ve given us that commitment and that was important to us. IPL is important to them, and to the world of cricket players who make a lot of money out of it, and we didn’t want to see it grow. We’ve also negotiated with India to pay the countries more for their players. We’ve got good understandings on that, they’ve been very straightforward and I believe them.”

Edwards was not ready to take the BCCI on on its threats of breaking away from the international calendar. He instead chose to find a solution acceptable to all boards, and that is what has happened after a series of ICC meetings in the past two months. Opponents of the new found solution, though, continue to insist that the BCCI should have been taken on.

“Well why would you?” Edwards said when asked about the issue. “If you can find a progressive way to improve the place, why would you take that chance, why would you do a Kerry Packer, where the Australian board just said ‘bugger off’ with the deal. Your guess is as good as mine what might happen. I don’t know what would happen, and why would you risk it?

“Why would you risk turning the IPL into a travelling circus that would take all our good cricketers 12 months of the year and leave us with second rate international cricket. It’s not a pretty thought. But it’s possible, and they know that. Maybe in the end it will still happen one day, but I don’t think it will happen in the next eight years.”

Despite the new ICC propositions being worked out in great detail, the BCCI still have not signed the new Members Participation Agreement (MPA) for the next round of television rights.

“India are strong and we’ve got to recognise that, but what we want them to do is be part of the decision-making process and be in the ICC rather than just turning up and being aggressive, angry and unhappy,” he said. “That’s where they are, they’re unhappy.

“The reality is to this day we still haven’t got an MPA signed yet for the next media rights cycle. ICC management has been trying for a year to get it signed and it still isn’t. That has to be resolved by this next board meeting. That’s one of the building blocks. They’ve said more than once ‘you can have a World Cup but we won’t be coming’. We can argue they might come, but will they come to Champions Trophy or a World Twenty20? They might not. I can easily see them not coming.”