Thanks to BCCI, IPL gets what it truly deserves

Indian Premier League (IPL) has always moved in a direction that changed the global cricket calendar as we have known it. This year, it has moved beyond the expected.

Largely thanks to the current BCCI administration led by its secretary Jay Shah, the marquee T20 property has now carved out an extended window for itself in the international calendar, one that will now allow the IPL to run for a full three months and ensure that any or all cricket in the rest of the world comes to a standstill during this time. The credit for ICC's new FTP, in the context of this changing landscape, goes to BCCI & Shah alone.

The draft of ICC's Future Tours Program (FTP) is ready and the game's parent body is in the middle of selling its media rights for the next financial cycle. While that happens, the IPL - whose own media rights got sold in excess of Rs 48,000 crore last month - has ensured that ICC will not conduct any of its tournaments between March and May over the next four years and so will the other cricket boards around the world, as members of the governing body.

Like England plays all its cricket at home during the English summer and has those three months exclusively set aside for themselves when cricket in most other parts of the southern hemisphere comes to a halt; like Australia that refuses to play anywhere else but at home around the boxing day and start of the new year alongside hosting the Big Bash League (BBL); India too has finally flexed its muscle to ensure no cricket happens while the IPL goes on. In the run-up to IPL's recent expansion in terms of adding new franchises and the eventual sale of media rights, Shah, who has been taking keen interest in the affairs of the ICC, had shown particular interest in not