There are still some final discussions to be had at government level before the game can be locked in.

CA could potentially buy the game off the host club to take control of the fixture in India. There would also be a knock-on effect to the schedule given the distances involved, and the need to give players enough preparation time beforehand. There are no direct flights from Australia to Chennai but there are from Melbourne to Delhi and Sydney to Bangalore that take 11-12 hours. There are flight paths with one stopover to Chennai that take roughly 13 hours. Then, players also need recovery time on their return home before their next game. Chennai is also prone to flooding in December due to the wet season.

Whether the game is played during the day remains to be seen as day games are better for Australian broadcast windows with IPL day matches starting at 8pm AEST. IPL night matches start at 12am AEST.

In Australian sport, the NRL takes matches to Las Vegas to launch the rugby league season. However, that tournament is played over six months, while the BBL is completed in a seven-week window from mid-December to the end of January.

Ravichandran Ashwin,  a former CSK player, was due to be the first India international to feature in the BBL this season, having signed for Sydney Thunder, but withdrew due to a knee injury.

There are a number of clubs interested in playing in the game. It is understood Thunder and the two Melbourne clubs Stars and Renegades are open to playing in Chennai among others. One club would need to play as the “home” team which would reduce their home fixtures in Australia to just four which has flow-on effects to membership and ticket revenue.

Renegades are already looking at a hybrid home venue model for the upcoming season after their agreement with Marvel Stadium (Docklands) ended earlier this year. They are considering playing at multiple venues including GMHBA Stadium in Geelong, the MCG and the Junction Oval which is the home of Victoria’s high performance centre just south of Melbourne’s CBD. Floodlights are being installed at Junction Oval during the off-season that will be ready to use next summer but the ground only holds a maximum of 6000 people.

The news is separate from the BBL privatization debate that continues to bubble in Australia. The six states are split on a proposal to introduce private investment into the eight franchises. CA is pushing ahead to test the market with three clubs, Renegades, Perth Scorchers and Hobart Hurricanes to see what valuations might come back from prospective investors. Meanwhile, discussions are ongoing with New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia. NSW and Queensland have said no to the initial proposal while SA were keen for others to test the market first before going ahead.

NSW are continuing discussions with CA around an alternative model that they are proposing to avoid private investment. NSW are adamant that CA can raise revenue significantly to improve their profit and loss position and pay the players more money to play in the BBL by making adjustments within the current structure without introducing outside or foreign ownership into Australian cricket.

[Cricinfo]

The player registration portal, meanwhile, has been open since May 8 and will close on May 20. While direct signings can take place until May 22, the deadline for registration for all categories remains May 20.

While the previous two seasons hosted an auction, this year will see the return of a draft, set for June 1.

This change means that no player retention will be allowed from previous seasons, setting the stage for a significant shake up in squad composition. Each team will need to have a minimum of 18 members in their squad, with a further provision to add two local players, taking the squad limit to a maximum of 20.

In order to boost homegrown participation, SLC has announced that two local Emerging U-23 players must be present in each squad, with at least one named in a team’s starting XI. There must also be four overseas players in the playing XI at any given time.

The player registration guidelines had briefly sparked controversy on social media after an initial draft of the guidelines had listed a minimal count of 250,000 social media followers as a mandatory requirement for a registering Icon and Star category players – the two highest player categories. However, SLC has since removed that requirement.

LPL also kept a strong focus on ensuring player media engagement, with match fee penalties ranging from 5% to 50% for failure to meet the media and fan engagement requirements.

[Cricinfo]

It doesn’t appear as if Gaikwad is out of form. He is CSK’s second-highest run-getter. Just that he seems to be in denial about the way runs are scored in the powerplay in this IPL. With the field up, other openers are thinking boundaries all the time. He wants to get set and then go. It’s old school and that method, on Monday, gave him 15 in 21 balls – the lowest contribution by an opener at the time of his team’s 100.

On a pitch designed to neutralise bowlers of his pace, Pat Cummins picked up 3 for 28 in four overs. He nailed his match-up with Sanju Samson (one wicket for 23 runs in 20 balls in the IPL) and repeatedly went into the pitch with slower balls to add Kartik Sharma and Gaikwad into his back pocket. Led by the SRH captain’s example, Sakib Hussain took pace off for 18 of his 24 deliveries and finished with 2 for 34. These balls were sticking in the pitch and not coming onto the bat. It made setting up to play shots difficult.

Dewald Brevis walking out to bat is a spectacle all on its own, when he takes a knee just before entering the field. It’s clearly got something to do with his faith, but out here, it’s seen as a hero entry. As the main man marking himself out as the main man. Except coming into this game, he had a strike rate of 122.22. It was the sixth-lowest of all batters this season to have faced at least 50 balls.

SRH allowed only two boundaries in the five overs from nine to 13. CSK needed something from their star boy and finally he delivered. Hitting Nitish Reddy for a four and a six in the 14th over set him on his way to make 44 off 27. Confident in his cross-bat shots, he set himself up for the slow short ball and kept cutting and pulling them into the boundary.

At 17.5 overs, when Brevis was dismissed by Eshan Malinga, he, Samson and Kartik had scored 103 off 59, with 10 fours and seven sixes. Gaikwad, Urvil Patel and Shivam Dube had scored 54 off 52 with three fours and three sixes.

A third of CSK’s first seven overs were dot balls. Forty of SRH’s first 53 runs came in boundaries. The start of the chase was all about two teams pushing each other waiting for one of them to break.