Sourav Ganguly announces 4-nation super series featuring India, Australia, England and another top team
What's the story?
BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has declared that India, Australia, England and one more team will lock horns with each other in a four-nation Super Series which will begin in the year 2021. He also confirmed that the first edition of the tournament will happen in India.
The background
Earlier, ICC had proposed to have one flagship tourney once in a year from 2023 to 2031. However, the top three cricket boards, BCCI, CA and ECB rejected their idea. Besides, the rules and regulations of the ICC do not allow any board to conduct a multi nation series featuring more than three teams. Hence, this announcement has taken a few fans aback.
The heart of the matter
Speaking to the media during the fantasy cricket app My11Circle's event, Ganguly reflected on his meeting with the members of England Cricket Board and said:
"Australia, England, India and another top team will feature in the Super Series which begins in 2021 and the first edition of the tournament will be played in India. We have very good relations with the ECB and the meeting went off very well.”
When asked about the formation of Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), the BCCI President replied-
“We will have to form the CAC for just one meeting (for picking the selection panel). So it was a bit difficult to get three suitable people, but we have almost zeroed in on the members.”
Ganguly also gave his opinion on the recently concluded auction. He spoke about the ₹15.50 crore bid that Pat Cummins received besides talking about the two Bengal players that got a bid in the auction. He opined-
“No, I don’t think the amount was too high. It has a lot to do with the demand… Especially at these small auctions, franchises go all out after one player. That is why Ben Stokes’s value shot off the roof to Rs 14.5 crore when he was the part of a similar small auction in 2017. I wish both of them (Ishan Porel and Shahbaz Ahmed) all the best. Hope they will do well. Not only them, Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Mohammed Shami are also with the IPL teams. This was my first auction as BCCI president, the overall experience was quite good. It seems all the teams are balanced and the matches would be enjoyable.”
What's next?
IPL 2020 will take place in April next year while it will be intriguing to see which team joins India, Australia and England in the 4-nation tourney.
