Key highlight
- BCCI hints IPL 2026 could have 84 matches whereas by 2027 might get increased to 94 matches per season
Recently, BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) has indicated that the cycle of all IPL matches will increase from 2023 – 2027. The growth is seen to bring the IPL to market for a much larger audience. This year the Tata IPL 2022 saw a decline in the viewership despite having 74 matches. But perhaps this is the reason why BCCI is planning to increase the number of matches and see if the increase in the number is properly reaching out to an estimated 1 billion people of our country. In other words, by increasing in a number of matches the media rights will get bigger getting more time for advertising and seeing an increase in its earnings.
Now as you know, currently 74 matches are being played but probably from the 2023 -2027-year cycle, BCCI could increase the number of matches by 10 in the first two years i.e., 2023 – 2024, 2024 -2025 whereas another 10 number of match increase in next two years of 2025-2026 and 2026- 2027 which means in 2023 – 2024, 2024 -2025 in 84 matches will be played whereas by 2025-2026 and 2026- 2027 it may rise up to 94 matches per season.
On papers it looks outstanding but the who knows what is kept ahead. For your information, BCCI is the richest cricket board in the world and since past years have developed a strong endurance to manage all the highs and lows with ease. For example, the COVID outbreak of 2020 and its strain disrupting the schedule of the matches being played. But somehow the BCCI managed to keep all things together, came out as more powerful.
However, the BCCI has asked all the media companies to take the total number of matches as 410 and not 370 in the 2023-2027 cycle years and have invited bid through its ITT platform.
Let’s see what the BCCI will propose in the upcoming days related to the new format based on the increased number of matches.
