Lalit Modi has never been one to stay quiet, and when IPL chairman Arun Singh Dhumal floated the idea of expanding the league beyond its current 74-match format, Modi took to X with a characteristically brief response: “I told you so.”
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Dhumal, speaking to The Times Network, pointed to the global shift away from bilateral cricket and toward franchise-based tournaments as the basis for his thinking. “If you look at the transition over the last few years, there is definitely less interest in some bilateral games,” he said. The Hundred, the Big Bash League and SA20 were all cited as examples of a sport restructuring itself around leagues.
The catch, for now, is timing. The international cricket calendar is locked until 2027, which rules out any immediate overhaul. But Dhumal made clear that planning for the next phase has already begun. “When they plan post-2027, we will have discussions. Hopefully, we can carve out a bigger window and extend it beyond 74 matches,” he said.
He outlined possible routes forward, including trimming some bilateral commitments and finding new space in the global schedule. The vision he painted was one straight from football’s playbook: fewer international fixtures, more league cricket, with ICC events anchoring the calendar in between.
With global audiences increasingly choosing franchise cricket over bilateral series, the direction of travel is clear. The only question now is how quickly cricket’s administrators can agree to move.
