The Board of Control for Cricket in India has ruled out expanding the Indian Premier League to 12 teams, with secretary Devajit Saikia saying the idea has not been discussed at any level and is not on the board’s radar.
“We have neither discussed formally nor informally the possibility of the IPL becoming a 12-team affair in 2028. It’s not in our scope at this stage. We are concerned about the IPL of 2027, which is going to be the 20th edition of the IPL,” Saikia told PTI on Wednesday. “Whatever news is circulating in the media, I think these are all speculative reports from some fertile minds.”
The denial answers a report this week that the BCCI was exploring the addition of two new franchises from the 2028 media rights cycle, with Pune and Vadodara named as the frontrunners and the new teams valued at more than $1 billion each. That report had also raised the prospect of the tournament moving from its traditional March-May window, an idea that drew a public response from Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner Juhi Chawla and former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi.
Saikia also shut down a second strand of speculation, confirming there are no plans to raise the team salary cap from Rs 125 crore to Rs 150 crore for the upcoming auction window. The mini-auction in Goa on December 16 is the last of the current three-year cycle, and the salary ceiling remains locked at Rs 125 crore. The board will only consider structural changes to the purse after the 2027 season, ahead of the mega auction planned for late 2027 or early 2028.
The timing matters because the IPL’s future shape is being debated while the ICC meets in Bali this week to discuss the next Future Tours Programme from 2028, along with the first recommendations from its Franchise League Review Group. The BCCI’s position is that its only focus right now is delivering the 20th edition of the IPL, which begins in March 2027.
For the franchises, the immediate calendar is unchanged. Retention and release lists are due by November 17, after the deadline was extended by two days, and the player registration window closes on November 23. The mini-auction in Goa on December 16 will complete squads for the 2027 season, with the trading window having already produced the high-profile Hardik Pandya-Arshdeep Singh swap between Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings.
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