And after two months of intense action, the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 concluded with Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) winning the tournament for the second year in a row. As in recent editions, there was no shortage of drama. Midway through the tournament, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Devajit Saikia stepped in to issue fresh guidelines after several unwarranted incidents were reported during the 19th edition.
It all started with Rajasthan Royals manager Romi Bhinder using a mobile phone in the dugout during a match against RCB in Guwahati. A few days later, Royals captain Riyan Parag was found vaping in the dressing room. Both individuals were penalised, but Saikia went a step further, issuing an eight-page guideline document warning franchises about potential honey-trapping concerns.
Workload management also became a major talking point, with several pundits debating whether players should continue representing their franchises in all 14 league-stage matches even after their teams had been eliminated from playoff contention. Yet amid all the noise, no player captured the public imagination quite like Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who finished with the Orange Cap after amassing 776 runs.
As the dust settles on the 19th edition of the T20 tournament, Hindustan Times caught up with the BCCI secretary to discuss Sooryavanshi’s rise and the challenges involved in hosting IPL 2026. The tournament got underway on schedule despite the geopolitical tensions in West Asia arising from the conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran.
Saikia also explained why the new guidelines were introduced and answered a burning question: Is social media getting out of hand, and is reel culture something to be worried about?
Excerpts:
How do you see the IPL 2026 season as a whole? There was a lot of social media chatter about the television ratings dropping and whatnot. Were you and the board concerned at any point?
The whole tournament went off seamlessly, without any issues, unlike last year, when the tournament was suspended due to the Pahalgam attack. But this year, although at the initial stage, there was some apprehension about the ongoing Middle East crisis affecting the IPL. But that did not happen. Everything went off well. And all these social media issues are minor and have no impact on the overall IPL activities. So we are happy the way it finished.
And regarding the drop-off in linear television viewership, we don’t have viewership figures for the other platforms. Now, if there is a slight decrease in linear viewership of the IPL on television, there will be a significant increase in viewership on digital platforms. So those things will be analysed once we get all the facts and figures.
I don’t think that has any impact. That has nothing to do with the IPL’s overall viewership and popularity. And I’m very happy that everything went off so nicely, especially till the last day, the last league stage match. Nobody knew which teams would make the playoffs. Three teams were standing in a queue to fill up the fourth slot, but till the last match was over, nobody was sure what would happen. So that shows the competitiveness of IPL, and I’m very happy that there are very minor differences among the teams, except for one or two at the bottom of the table.
Otherwise, it was a very competitive IPL, and everyone, especially the fans, is very happy with the just-finished IPL. If you look at the crowd at the prize distribution yesterday, till well past midnight, everybody was in the stands. So it was full throughout the match and the ceremony, which happened about 45 minutes after the match ended.
It shows that the intensity of the tournament, as well as the participation of the fans, either in the stands or on the television set, on various platforms, people are engaged with IPL, and that shows that IPL is growing day by day and every year it is crossing the records of the previous year.
You, as the BCCI secretary, issued an eight-page diktat to all the IPL franchises, warning them about the threat of honey trapping and other concerns. At what point did you realise there was a need to issue guidelines?
When our anti-corruption team found many small issues that could have blown into a major controversy later, they said we had to do something at the very beginning. We have to nip it in the bud. Therefore, once we received the status or brief report on the various violations of the IPL protocols, we issued advisories to ensure and pre-empt any foul play in the IPL movement. So that is why we issued that, and all the teams have responded very well. Yesterday I spoke to our anti-corruption people, and they were also delighted with how that advisory acted, and it was a great addition in the overall running of the tournament, ensuring a conducive, well-structured tournament and adherence to all IPL protocols.
There were also concerns about the social media content and the prevailing reels culture during the IPL 2026 season. Were you concerned at any point?
Personally, I’m not bothered because you have to go with the technology and the things that are becoming popular on various platforms over time. Nobody thought about social media or any of these things when IPL started in 2008 or thereafter for the next 12, 13 years. But now this is the trend. So we have to adjust ourselves to the trend. But that does not allow anyone to intrude into team meetings or team activities, or onto buses or into areas where other unauthorised persons are not supposed to enter. We are just ensuring that social media do not cross the line, which is where they are not allowed to travel. So that is the only thing we are concerned about. Those things will definitely grow, but they must follow the IPL protocols.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi emerged as the standout story from the IPL 2026 season. There is a lot of clamour for him to be included in India’s national men’s side. How do you see his exceptional rise, and how do you plan on ensuring that he always plays to his potential?
Vaibhav is a new wonder kid in Indian cricket, and I’m sure he will also take the world by storm in the coming days. And all our selectors are part of the IPL tournament. Everybody, all the selectors are watching these matches very closely, and in most cases, they are also present at the venue. So, in the upcoming selection meetings for the Indian team’s UK trip, I’m sure the selectors will do whatever is necessary and is in his best interest, given the way he has performed.
Many other players performed exceedingly well. But Vaibhav is exceptional, and I am very happy that God is kind, that a new wonder kid has been presented to the Indian cricket scene at this stage, and that he will definitely cross the boundaries very soon.
Can we expect the number of IPL games to increase to 94 in the years to come?
We are not taking that issue seriously because, as in previous years, the IPL continued for more than two months. It was two months, two days this year, to be precise. Last year, there was an extension because of a one-week suspension in between. The only concern we are feeling, and it is in our discussion, is that while the tournament continued till 31st May, some venues are either showing signs of rain or experiencing high temperatures.
So we may be exploring ways to bring IPL forward by another 15 days. This year, we started it around March 28. We’ll try to bring IPL a bit ahead of the season, maybe by March 15. We are working on it and finish and close it by May 15 so that the rigours of the warm weather or the rain will not have any impact on the players as well as the crowd and thehe fans, which is very important because to watch a match, especially the matches in the hot sun, it is very difficult and very uncomfortable for the fans also because of the high temperature in some of the venues.
So we are working on it, but I cannot say at this moment that we are taking the matter very seriously to increase it from 74 to 94 because there are a lot of other factors involved. We have to look at the various FTPs and the participation of other countries in bilateral and other multinational tournaments where the ICC is the governing body. So there is no immediate talk about increasing it. But let’s see how things progress after 2027. Only time will tell.
Lastly, there is a lot of chatter about player workload management during the IPL. Yes, you did say in the past that the BCCI cannot do much about it during the tournament. But is there something that the board would look to work towards so that the national side doesn’t fall short of resources?
Our technical personnel, who are in charge of the fitness of the players, and who are under contract and who are on the fringe of the Indian team. They are well monitored from outside, but they do not enter into the day-to-day activities. A general regime or general routine is given to them on how they should carry out their fitness programmes. But the thing is, as I have always told you, we cannot micromanage fitness during these two months when the franchisees are in control of their players.
But overall, we are monitoring and ensuring that things are taken into consideration, given the two months’ rigour during the IPL, and how they have to cope up. Their programme has been set by our technical personnel well before the IPL starts. For all individual players who know they have a chance to represent the country, they are well aware of what they have to do and what they don’t.
So all their do’s and don’ts and SOPs are well within India’s scope, and they are following them. So we can say that much only at this stage.
