IPL closing ceremony
After a successful auction of IPL media rights, Punjab Kings co-owner Ness Wadia feels that IPL should now be held in two separate halves.
The media rights auction ended with a massive deal.
BCCI spreading the media rights into four bundles helped the richest cricketing board amass Rs 48390 crore from the e-auction, nearly three times more than the previous cycle.
Speaking about the auction and future of IPL, Wadia said, "IPL has taken cricket to the global level. The IPL has provided the spark cricket needed and made it a global sport. It will get even bigger.
"Having said that seven matches at home, is way too less. It should be a minimum of 14. I see a much longer season which is long overdue.
"If you can't have a long season of four months why not look at two seasons, one in India and one in a different country every year. Indians are everywhere around the world. There is huge potential for having many more games," he added.
Asked why the home games need to be doubled, he said: "It is a logical reason. How much are seven matches at home? Too few in my opinion. There has to be a bigger window. In per match value, the IPL is bigger than EPL now and look at the number of games each team plays there (38)."
"At some point, we will have to factor in that also. That is where the creativity comes and we can see how leagues are run around the world. We are long away from fatigue at the moment. We will cross the bridge when we get there," he further added while speaking about the viewer fatigue factor with the IPL getting longer.
(Inputs from PTI)
