'Power Player' concept discussed, will need further debating: IPL Governing Council​​​​​​​

Mumbai, Nov 5: The Indian Premier League Governing Council met at the BCCI HQ on Tuesday and as expected, the biggest topic of discussion was the introduction of the concept of 'Power Player'. Since there was no conclusion to the debate, the matter is set to be discussed further as per those present in the meeting that was chaired by Chairman Brijesh Patel.

The agency had reported on Monday that the IPL GC would discuss the concept of 'Power Play'. As per the plan, teams would be allowed to substitute a player at the fall of a wicket or at the end of an over at any point in the game. The idea has the capacity to change match situations and induce out-of-the-box thinking and strategising from the two teams and engage the fans further.

Speaking to IANS, sources in the know of developments said that the matter will have to be discussed further before a final call is taken on the matter. "See, it would have been ideal to try it out in the Mushtaq Ali Trophy, but that isn't a possibility anymore and in such a scenario, we will have to discuss this further before seeing if such an experiment can be carried out directly in the IPL," the source said.

Another matter that was discussed was the introduction of an extra umpire just to check on the no-ball. The failure of the umpires in calling no-balls created quite a bit of controversy in the last edition of the IPL with critics calling for better examination procedures to pick the umpires.

"If all goes well, during the next Indian Premier League, you could see another umpire apart from the regular umpires just to "observe" no-balls. The concept sounds weird, but this was among the issues discussed in the first IPL Governing Council meeting which was held here," a senior GC member said.

"We want to use the technology. We are having another umpire for only observing no-balls. There will be an umpire, who will be focused on no-balls only. And he will not be third or fourth umpire."

Interestingly, the position of IPL franchises looking to head for pre-season tours to countries like the US was also discussed and even though there has been a rise in interest among franchises, the matter is set to be discussed further before a final call is taken.

"The matter was the last point on the agenda and yes we did speak about the interest that has been shown by the franchises to conduct pre-season tours like in football. But we will need to discuss this further before coming to a conclusion," the GC member said.

Asked about the date of the auction, the member said it would take place on December 19 in Kolkata.