The IPL Governing Council is looking to have a special umpire for ‘No Ball’ for the first time as several controversial decisions in the past have raised questions about the level of Indian match officials. It is understood that the ‘Powerplayer’ Substitution during IPL matches is also not being started at present as it will not be trialled in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy National T20 Championship starting later this week.
The meeting chaired by former Test batsman Brijesh Patel discussed the FTP window, availability of foreign players, FTP of the Indian team and the possibility of the franchise playing friendly matches abroad.
“There will be a specialised umpire for this, who will work in co-ordination with the on-field umpires and the third umpire. This is an effort to reduce errors,” a member of BCCI was quoted as saying by Sportstar.
The BCCI member stated that the rule will first be used in any Indian domestic tournament before getting implemented in IPL.
Talking about powerplayer rule, a top BCCI official confirmed that it won’t be used is IPL 2020 due to shortage of time “We are exploring all the options and a decision will be taken over the course of time. The idea is to make the tournament fan-friendly, and we will take every suggestion into consideration. But Power Player may not be used in the next edition of the IPL due to lack of time,” the official said. “Before we implement that in the IPL, we need to test that in domestic tournaments and that will take some time,” the official told Sportstar.
The new IPL governing council has given green signal of the franchise teams playing friendlies abroad to promote the game. “We are also looking at having a smaller friendly tournament in the period when there is no activity. But for that we will have to look at the ICC FTP and then decide,” the official said.
