Virat Kohli with the IPL trophy [Source: AFP]The Indian Premier League is set to expand over the coming years from its current 74 matches to a 94-match tournament per season. As per IPL chairman Arun Dhumal, BCCI will see the expansion of the tournament beginning in 2028, which will eliminate the current virtual group system and will see a more traditional double-legged round-robin format. The IPL Expansion From 74 To 94 Matches The current structure is already almost 2.5 months long, which is one of the longest T20 franchise cricket tournaments to ever exist in the world. Typically, all other T20 tournaments get summed up within a month or 1.5 months at max. However, the tournament's increasing popularity and rising demand to watch more T20 cricket games have kept things interesting despite it being such a gruelling process for both the spectators and the players. Arun Dhumal Confirms IPL Structure Change By BCCISpeaking on the league's future trajectory, Arun Dhumal shared that while the volume of cricket will increase, the number of franchises is said to remain capped at 10. It means the franchises participating right now will be the same ones that participate in the 2028 season as well. "With the given set of teams, only we can go for more number of matches," Dhumal said. "So it doesn't make sense as of now to increase the number of teams. Because if we have to have an equal number of home and away matches, from 74 we can go up to 94. That would be the ideal situation," Dhumal added. The jump from the current 74-match schedule to 94 will be designed to ensure that every team plays every other team twice, which is not currently the case. Also Read- Watch- Digvesh Rathi-Shahbaz Ahmed Fight Publicly, Rishabh Pant Forced To MediateWhen it was an eight-team tournament, these double-legged fixtures were a staple in which each team played every other team, one match at home and one away. However, the reintroduction of 10 teams had a compromised window, preventing the tournament from overextending. What Is The Current IPL 2026 Structure? For the unaware, the BCCI decided to use the virtual group system to keep the season to 74 matches and two months for IPL 2026. Here, in the virtual groups, the teams are divided into two groups of five based on previous performances, but all the 10 teams share one points table. The teams play four teams in their own group once and the five teams in the opposite group twice. Notably, the cricket board will be turning down this model from 2028 to extend the league. Why BCCI Is Waiting For The 2028 Season And Not 2027? IPL could have implemented this transformation in the 2027 season as well. However, the ICC's Future Tours Programme locks the current bilateral calendar until 2027, leaving the apex cricket body with just a 60-65-day window that cannot accommodate the 94-match schedule."Since the bilaterals are locked in till 2027, we would need a bigger window to raise the number of games from 74 to 94. So we are looking for a bigger window post-2027 bilateral cycle. In case we can get that, we will definitely try to have 94 games," Dhumal explained. Why BCCI Is Choosing To Expand An ‘Already Long’ Tournament? The shift to 94 games might also be a calculated response to the recent viewership trends that saw a clear dip of 15-20% during the middle phase of IPL 2026. Fatigue is real, and the exhausting spectatorship of the T20 World Cup, the bilateral series, and the IPL, with continuity, has now left spectators saturated. Fans struggle with the complexity of the continuous series of matches, and hence, by reverting to a full home-and-away cycle, the BCCI hopes to restore continuity and offer a more football-style tournament for viewers to enjoy.Also Read- Shreyas Iyer Gets Green Signal For India Captaincy After IPL
