Mini IPL Two Much of a Golden Goose?

Anurag Thakur, is forging ahead, outlining plans to have a second IPL tournament to be hosted plausibly outside the country...

- Sreelata S.Yellamrazu

Always on the lookout for the next lucrative venture, as the Board of Control for Cricket in India(BCCI) looks to fill in the tightly squeezed corridor of the cricket calendar left vacant by the Champions League Twenty20, the implications of a second Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament in one season seems a bite too big to stomach.

Notwithstanding the fact that the BCCI is currently embroiled in untangling itself on the directives of the Supreme Court, the current administration under the recently elected BCCI President, Anurag Thakur, is forging ahead, outlining plans to have a second IPL tournament (Mini IPL/IPL 2 for practical purposes) to be hosted plausibly outside the country a couple of months down the line as the rest of the cricket world can only look on with some trepidation.

The nails were hammered into the coffin of the Champions League Twenty20 even before what was eventually the final edition of the tournament. If anything, the BCCI, with its co-partners for the venture – Cricket Australia (CA) and Cricket South Africa (CSA), seemed eager to wrap up the final edition two years back even as the former made plans to fill that space in the calendar with another IPL tournament, even if it meant having to compromise on a much compressed version of the Indian summer extravaganza, although the franchisees would perhaps have had something to say about that compressed venture.