The officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will meet in Mumbai on Thursday (July 21) for the Apex Council Meeting. This time, after a brief interval, the meeting will take place physically, and one of the major talking points will be the media rights for Indian cricket’s home season and plans for a full-fledged domestic season.
The Apex Council is likely to give the go ahead for a full-fledged domestic season this time around. Since the COVID-19 situation is under control in India, the BCCI removed the restrictions during the South Africa T20I series last month and the same is likely to stay for the domestic season as well.
Because of COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020–21 season of the Ranji Trophy was cancelled and a few format was tried in the 2021–22 season in which each team got only a chance to play three league matches. The 12-point agenda for the Thursday meeting includes “an update on the 2022-2023 domestic season, gradation of umpires and media rights for cricket in India”, news agency PTI said.
“The media rights will be discussed as well as the upcoming domestic season,” the news agency quoted a BCCI official as saying. Like the IPL media rights, the BCCI is expecting big bucks from media rights for the home season as well from 2023. Current rights holder Star India has paid Rs. 6138.1 crore for the 2018–2023 cycle, but the figure is set to go much higher.
