The camel of franchise cricket is beginning to feel comfortable in the tent of international cricket but bilateral T20 internationals among Test-playing countries may have become pointless.
Arun Singh Dhumal, chairman of the IPL told Financial Times that the new world order could include more franchise T20s and fewer bilaterals. “Whatever works in the interest of world cricket at large, we will take a decision keeping that in mind,” he said magnanimously.
He has asked for a fresh look after 2027 when the current cycle ends. He might merely be anticipating the inevitable. Franchise cricket will continue to suck relevance out of bilateral T20 series. Dhumal hopes to have 94 matches instead of the current 74 in the IPL and thus a bigger window for the tournament.
Ownership
What is not often considered is the effect of IPL ownership in franchises around the world: in the Caribbean, South Africa, UAE and The Hundred in England. Australia are toying with the idea of selling full or partial stakes in the Big Bash League, and you can be sure the usual suspects will then line up with their cheque books.
Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals own franchises in four continents; all six teams in South Africa’s SA20 are owned by Indian franchises. Major League Cricket in the US has four Indian franchises.
Cricket’s franchise empires have moved efficiently, and in the near future we could see either consolidation or attempts to break away from cricket’s national and international governing bodies. The possibility that franchise cricket will be run by the owners cannot be ruled out. That is, if they take the formal route. Informally, their influence is growing anyway.
The IPL, originator and still the richest league of them all, does not permit active Indian players to take part in other leagues. But for how long? For the amount of money Indian franchises have spent on their teams, they will begin to demand their pound of flesh — return on investment — soon enough.
The most powerful person in world cricket is Jay Shah, chairman of the International Cricket Council. He was president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. He is the son of India’s Home Minister. That’s a trifecta difficult to top. Yet Mukesh Ambani, who owns more franchises than anybody else, might be the one running the game in the near future; economics trumps history and politics in the contemporary world.
Leagues now have restrictions on foreigners in the playing eleven (four in the IPL, three in the BBL and so on). This is a sensible ruling to ensure local participation and keep the supply lines to the national level unclogged. But when the bottom line is calculated in dollars, national interest is not a priority. The control of the global calendar is an obvious battle ground of the near future, as is the question of player burnout.
Lay down the rules
If the ICC does not lay down the rules soon, restricting the number of leagues a player might participate in, or indeed the number of franchises one owner might buy, the clash with franchise cricket (which is technically domestic) might become difficult to handle. Tim David, for instance, has played for five franchises in a single season. Players need choice, but they also need protection.
Fan fatigue needs to be considered too; if the television audiences drop, the billionaires are likely to move on to the next big thing. Year-round T20 cricket with demands for high-profile players and shifting calendars might be a sport too far for even the most hardened fans of the format.
We might have reached an inflexion point. Dhumal might be testing the waters, checking how far franchise cricket can be pushed, or indeed how much the IPL can bear in terms of more teams and more matches.
For a large community of fans, ‘cricket’ still means Test and first class cricket. These co-exist with franchise cricket, but for that happy state to continue, the ICC has to let the camel know that it has come inside the tent far enough. The BCCI, which presides over the largest sets of fans for either format, has an important role to play. Be careful what you wish for.
Published – April 08, 2026 12:32 am IST