What happens to Pune and Rajkot once CSK and RR are back in the IPL?

By now, we all are well versed about the fact that Pune and Rajkot will be the two new franchises who will be playing in the 2016 and 2017 editions of the Indian Premier League.

They have been picked as replacements for the tainted Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals franchises, which stand suspended for two seasons of the IPL following their involvement in the 2013 IPL spot-fixing and corruption scandal.

The latest development for the Pune and Rajkot franchises came with the draft which took place today at the Mumbai Cricket Association’s Bandra-Kurla Complex clubhouse. Here they got the opportunity to pick 5 top players each from among those released by the suspended franchises.

Both teams managed to lap up some of the biggest names in IPL history who will form their base for the next two years. While Pune opted for the services of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin, Steven Smith and Faf du Plessis, Rajkot chose Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Brendon McCullum, James Faulkner and Dwayne Bravo.

With INR 29 crore already spent on the top 5 players, the new franchises are now left with INR 27 crore each to make purchases at the main auction to be held at Bengaluru on 6 February 2016.

Despite all these exercises happening around the two new teams, the inevitable fact is that two years down the line in IPL 2018, both suspended franchises in CSK and RR will be back. The big question that is on everyone’s mind is what happens then? Well, we have chalked out some of the likely scenarios.

Both franchises may be scrapped

With the BCCI not throwing any light on whether there is any future for the Pune and Rajkot franchises post the end of the two-year suspension period for Chennai and Rajasthan, the most obvious scenario may be the scrapping of the two franchises. This would mean that the players who are due to be part of the new teams will be thrown into the auction pool once again after two years.

Even in the press conference which followed the 8th December team auction, BCCI president Shashank Manohar had said that the bidding had been done only for two years and the two new teams will not continue.

Possibilities of a 10-team IPL

A 10-team IPL involving Pune and Rajkot alongside the returning CSK and RR franchises is perhaps the least likely scenario to occur in the 2018 season. When questioned about this post the auction, president Manohar had pointed out that the board is yet to take a call on this.

However, a couple of days later BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur had revealed in an interaction with the media that they will be sticking to the 8-team model for the IPL. His reasoning behind this was that it would be difficult to fit 10 teams into the IPL window and would also lead to more afternoon games resulting negative impact on the quality of cricket and reduced TRP.

Despite all this, we would rather not rule out this possibility as two years may be a long enough time for opinions to deviate.

Franchises may move to a new T20 league

Going by secretary Anurag Thakur’s recent comments in the media, the BCCI are mulling the idea of forming a new T20 league in the lines of the IPL. According to him, they are considering this option looking at the number of people who are wanting to own IPL teams.

If this actually happens, there are high chances that the new Pune and Rajkot franchises may be moved from the IPL to this new league. This would be ideal taking into account how much the respective owners have strived to get an entry into the world’s most popular T20 tournament and will also give them an opportunity to make up for all the losses both are due to suffer in the next two years.

At this stage, we can only speculate about the various possibilities that are connected to the fate of IPL’s two new franchises on the return of the teams that they have replaced. However, the decision ultimately lies in the hands of the BCCI and one would have to keep a close watch on which way they turn by the time the 2018 edition of the IPL comes around.

For now, though, we will look forward to yet another season of the Indian Premier League which promises to be a cracker even without a couple of teams from the older lot.