In a friendly match played between the officials of the board and the state associations ahead all-important 89th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Thursday, BCCI Secretary XI has defeated BCCI President XI. While the Secretary XI was led by Jay Shah, the President XI was captained by none other than Sourav Ganguly.
The newly built Motera stadium in Ahmedabad, which has a seating capacity of 110,000, was the venue for the match.
According to a report in Mid-Day, the head of Hyderabad Cricket Association Mohammad Azharuddin, retired India batsman Brijesh Patel, and ex-Saurashtra skipper Jaydev Shah took part in the game.
A number of topics will be discussed in the scheduled Annual General Meeting with one of them being the number of teams for the next edition of the IPL. According to a BCCI official, most of the members are in favor of introducing two more teams into the mix, as they feel it would create a “larger talent pool, given the abundance of talent in India”.
“There are a lot of modalities that need to be discussed and most of the stakeholders feel that with IPL being held in April, there is very little time for a mega auction and to have a uniform retention policy,” a BCCI official said.
“You have to invite tenders and have a bidding process ready. In case you have two teams winning bids in late January or early February, they need to be given time for auction which can then be held only in March. That leaves a new team with very little time to plan,” he added.