The Indian Premier League formally entered its post-Lalit Modi era on Thursday as the franchisees discussed the nitty-gritties of the tournament with the Cricket Board officials here to determine the way forward.
Salary cap, player retention and format of the tournament from its fourth season next year dominated the discussion but no decision was taken in the meeting between the franchisees and the Board officials.
"A lot of issues came up for discussion, including retention of players during players' auction and salary cap of the players. We, the franchisees, put forth our views to the BCCI and they, in turn, presented their views," Srinivas Bommidala of the GMR Sports, which owns Delhi Daredevils, told reporters after the meeting.
"The IPL Governing Council (meeting here tomorrow) will take a decision (on all these matters). There will be future discussion with each franchisee," fellow GMR official BP Vanchi said.
This was the first meeting between the franchisees and the IPL officials since the April 26 suspension of Modi, who was hailed as the mastermind of the league till his ouster.
Modi's fate is likely to be determined in the July 3 Special General Body Meeting of the BCCI, which appears to have made up its mind to oust the suspended IPL Commissioner mainly on charges of financial irregularities.
Vanchi, meanwhile, dismissed reports that Royal Challengers Bangalore owner Vijay Mallya has been appointed as the spokesman by the 10 franchisees and said various names are being considered.
All the issues discussed with the franchisees would be presented tomorrow to the IPL Governing Council with interim chairman Chirayu Amin present, he added.
The Governing Council also includes former cricketers Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri, along with BCCI president Shashank Manohar.
Mallya later told reporters that the franchisees have suggested to the Board that all cricketers, including 'icon' players like Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, be put up for fresh auction.
"Franchisees suggested that there should be an open players auction (and all players be put on auction and none retained by a franchisee)," said the high-profile owner of the Bangalore franchise.
With two new franchises -- Pune and Kochi -- joining the fray, the number of matches, if the existing home-and-away system is followed, would go up to 94. The Cricket Board is not keen on it but Mallya said the franchisees favoured the old format.
"There should be no change in the home-and-away format and all matches should be played," he said.
"As far as 94 matches are concerned, there were suggestions to restrict to 10 matches (per franchise). But our view is that we would like the earlier format to continue," he said.
Mallya said there was discussion about the budget cap as well.
"The franchisees were of the view that the budget cap (for players) be increased to USD 9 million (from USD million," he said. PTI
