IPL 2019 was a successful tournament for the BCCI, with Mumbai Indians defeating Chennai Super Kings in the finals to lift their fourth IPL trophy, which is a record. However, poor umpiring was one area that got the league much criticism, especially the on-filed umpires missing foot no-balls.

Such mistakes have led to the BCCI appointing an extra umpire just to keep an eye on such no-balls which may be missed by the on-field umpires. “There will be a specialized umpire for this, who will work in coordination with the on-field umpires and the third umpire. This is an effort to reduce errors. It can be tried out in any tournament, even in Ranji Trophy. We will discuss it further and see how it goes,” one of the members of the Governing Council said.

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The matter was discussed in the IPL Governing Council meeting, which was held at the BCCI headquarters on Tuesday, under the supervision of former India cricketer, Brijesh Patel.

The governing council is also likely to allow IPL franchisees to play friendly matches outside India in order to promote the IPL. Earlier Committee of Administrators (CoA) had shot down Mumbai Indians’ proposal to do the same. “We are also looking at having a smaller friendly tournament in the period when there is no activity. But for that we will have to look at the ICC FTP and then decide,” one of the officials said, making it clear that the matter needs more discussion.

The IPL 2020 auction will take place on December 19 in Kolkata. This time it's a small auction with franchises allotted Rs 85 core to build their sides for the tournament. The franchises also have an additional Rs 3 crore in addition to the leftovers from the last auction. “We have been informed that all tradings need to be done by November 14 and the auction will be held on December 19,” one of the franchise bosses said.

(sportstar.thehindu.com inputs)