Will T20 Cricket Go The Football Way? Ravi Shastri Says 'Yes, It's The Future'

The IPL 2022 saw 10 teams competing in an almost two-month window.

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With each passing year and season, the Indian Premier League has only grown bigger and better. Starting in 2008, the IPL recently (on 29th May) finished its 15th season which saw ten teams competing after two new franchises were added for massive amounts paid by the owners. 

The fact that a team now costs more than 7000 crore INR means that there are a lot of future investments that are expected to give great returns in the future. IPL is now not only a popular platform for cricketers to test their skills but for marketers to invest. 

With the growing interest of markets and the popularity of the league where fans can watch all their favorite players playing and competing with each other in a highly competitive tournament. This has resulted in a decreased value of the T20I bilateral series as the ICC chairman recently said in an interview. 

"So if there are more domestic leagues, that are attracted to the players, so something has to go and I don’t think ICC events, which are there every year, and those events have got more teams, so they are going to take longer, so the bit that gets squeezed are the bilateral arrangements,” Greg Barclay said. 

Ravi Shastri too agrees with the fact that no one remembers bilaterals and he sees T20 cricket going the football way of only having World Cups after every two years and no bilaterals. 

"Yes, absolutely, there's too much of bilateral stuff going on in T20 cricket. I've said that [before], even when I was the coach of India, I could see it happening in front of my eyes. It should go the football way, where, in T20 cricket, you just play the World Cup. Bilateral tournaments - no one remembers," Shastri said on ESPNcricinfo. 

"I don't remember a single game in the last six-seven years as coach of India, barring the World Cup. A team wins the World Cup, they will remember it. Unfortunately, we didn't, so I don't remember that either. Where I am coming from is: you play franchise cricket around the globe; each country is allowed to have their franchise cricket, which is their domestic cricket, and then, every two years, you come and play a World Cup."

In each IPL season, a minimum of 74 matches happen including 70 league games and four playoffs. However, with the arrival of two new teams, the matches are likely to be increased which means a longer window for the IPL is needed. 

"That's the future. It could be tomorrow - 140 games, split 70-70. In two seasons. You never know. That's the way it's going to go. That's the way it's developed as a beast of a property. And you cannot hide away from that," Shastri said. 

The 60-year-old rubbished the claims of an overdose of IPL, saying people are having withdrawal symptoms. 

"You might think that's overdose, but nothing is overdose in India. I have been sitting outside the bubble, I have been watching people, how they have seen, how they have reviewed these last few months, especially [after coming] out of Covid. And they are loving every bit of it, and they are almost having withdrawal symptoms."