IPL eyes 94‑match season

The IPL is basically trying to decide whether it wants to stay a very rich short season or become a much bigger one. That matters because the league already has 10 teams, but it still does not run a clean home-and-away schedule. Some opponents are faced twice, others only once. Now Arun Dhumal, the IPL’s chairman, has made the next step pretty explicit — the BCCI will seriously consider a 94-match season from 2028 if it can win more room in the global calendar. ### Why is 94 the number? With 10 teams, a full double round-robin means every team plays every other team twice — once home, once away. That produces 90 league matches, then four playoff games, for 94 total. The current format has 74 matches, which is why each team does not get a symmetrical schedule right now. (espncricinfo.com) ### What did Dhumal actually say? He did not announce a confirmed expansion for 2028. The important part is narrower than that. He said the BCCI will consider moving to a full home-and-away format in the next media-rights cycle, which starts in 2028, and that doing so would require a bigger window. He also made clear there are no immediate plans to add new franchises. So this is a serious plan under discussion, not a signed-off format change. (espncricinfo.com) ### Why didn’t the IPL already expand? Turns out it was supposed to get bigger sooner. The 2022 media-rights deal had pointed toward 84 matches by 2025, but that did not happen. The league stayed at 74. The reasons were practical — a packed schedule, resistance to too many double-headers, and concern that stuffing more games into the same slot would hurt the product. (espncricinfo.com) ### Why are double-headers such a problem? Because more matches are only valuable if people keep watching them. Afternoon games tend to rate worse than prime-time ones, and the IPL has already reduced the share of double-headers over time. The league now stretches beyond nine weeks partly because it prefers cleaner evening windows to cramming two games into one day. That makes expansion harder. You can add matches, but then you usually also need more calendar days. (espncricinfo.com) ### So is the real bottleneck money or calendar space? Calendar space. Dhumal’s comments point straight at the Future Tours Programme, which is effectively locked through 2027. That means any real redesign has to wait for the next cycle of negotiations with other boards and the ICC. He has also floated the broader idea that some bilateral cricket is losing pull, which could eventually make more space for franchise leagues like the IPL. (espncricinfo.com) ### Why does home-and-away matter so much? Fairness is one reason. Every team would face the same opponents the same number of times, with the same home-and-away balance. But money is the other reason. More guaranteed home games mean more ticketing, local sponsorship, hospitality, and inventory for broadcasters and streamers. That is why franchise owners have pushed for it for years, and why even critics of the current setup say value is being left on the table. (cricbuzz.com) ### Does this mean more teams are coming too? Not from what Dhumal has said. The discussion is about giving the existing 10 teams a fuller schedule, not expanding the league to 12 or more franchises. That is an important distinction, because 94 matches sounds like a giant structural jump, but it is really a schedule fix first. (sportstar.thehindu.com) ### Bottom line? The IPL is not chasing 94 matches because 74 stopped working. It is chasing 94 because 10 teams make the current format feel unfinished. But the catch is simple — the league can want a bigger season, and maybe even the market wants it too, yet none of it happens unless world cricket gives the IPL two more weeks. (espncricinfo.com)