The Indian Premier League (IPL) was not enough, as now BCCI is considering holding a mini IPL in September 2016. This mini IPL is likely to be hosted outside the country as the Board is interested in exploiting the international market.
BCCI, along with Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa, had scrapped the Champions League T20 last year. As a result, there is a vacant window in September and BCCI wants to utilise that period to organise this mini IPL.
"There's a 'window' which has been left vacant in September after the Champions League T20 was discontinued from last year. The Mumbai Indians wanted to play a few games against another franchise. Their request has been turned down and instead a proposal to launch a mini IPL was floated.We're now considering the possibility of playing a short duration (10-15 days) tournament in the UAE or the US, in which all the eight teams can take part," a source close to the development was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
However, BCCI must be completely aware of the fact that Indian domestic cricket season is scheduled to begin in September. The Duleep Trophy will be one of the major attractions this year as it will be played under the floodlights for the first time in the history and also it will be played with the pink ball. The stars of the Indian cricket team are also supposed to feature in this years Duleep Trophy.
Currently, the IPL Governing Council is discussing the possibility of holding a mini IPL. No concrete decision was made during the Board's meeting on Thursday in Dharamsala, where they announced Anil Kumble as the new India coach. But one can expect that something may come out of BCCI's Working Committee meeting on Friday. However, , according to their cricket calendar, one thing is for sure that India are not playing any cricket in September.
This mini IPL is likely to go on for a couple of weeks and BCCI are planning to hold this event in either UAE or in the U.S.
