The Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) is no doubt the richest cricketing board in the world. Moreover, the Indian Premier League (IPL) organised by BCCI is the biggest international T20 league.
However, a number of T20 leagues have mushroomed across the globe. As per sources, franchises like Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians and others buying teams in foreign leagues have made the BCCI panic.
“BCCI has been organising a brand T20 League. We have to protect our brand IPL. We are pretty much concerned when some of the IPL owners are being associated with the foreign league,” said a top BCCI official.
The official also made it clear that BCCI has no plan to allow top Indian cricketers to participate in the foreign leagues.
Among the top foreign T20 leagues are UAE’s ILT20, South Africa’s T20 league or Caribbean Premier League. Some of the IPL owners are big buyers of franchises in these leagues.
There are umpteen requests from fans to BCCI to allow non-contractual Indian players participate in these foreign leagues. However, that is unlikely to happen soon as BCCI is hell-bent on protecting the brand IPL.