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Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) will not be featuring in the the next two seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL). This piece of news broke a couple of weeks ago and now the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has assured the other six franchises that IPL will conitnue to remain an eight-team tournament.

Two new franchises will be featuring in the IPL 2016 and 2017. The bidding for the two new teams will begin after BCCI's Annual General Meeting (AGM) that will be held on 9 November. 

BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur and IPL chariman Rajeev Shukla met the representatives from the other six franchises of the IPL in New Delhi on Wednesday. In that meeting, Thakur and Shukla assured the representatives that they need not worry about the format of the tournament.  

"It was a very fruitful discussion. We briefed the franchisee about the steps to be taken by BCCI regarding the two-year suspension of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. Their feedback is valuable to us and they appreciated the solutions suggested by the IPL working group which were later recommended by the BCCI working Committee," a BCCI press release quoted Shukla as saying. 

Lodha Committee verdict came in the month of July and thereafter a number of meetings were being held by BCCI regarding the furture of the two suspended franchises, CSK and RR. Finally, the decison was made few days ago that these two teams will remain suspended until 2017. BCCI are making constant efforts to develop the game and rev up the magnitude of IPL every season. It will be interesting to see which two cities steps ahead to add to the cash-rich league for the next two season.  

"We are making constant efforts to keep our stakeholders involved at all levels. It was important for us to take the franchisee on board and let them know about our discussions and recommendations and our reasons behind those recommendations with regards to vivo IPL season 2016 and 2017. The franchisees expressed satisfaction and support towards the IPL. We are committed to deliver the best of IPL editions in the years to come," Thakur added.