The 17th edition of the Indian Premier League is set to begin from March 22 and will be played in its entirety in India amidst the general elections, IPL chairman Arun Dhumal shared on Tuesday.
“We are looking for a March 22 date to start the IPL this season,” Dhumal told The Indian Express, furthermore adding that the schedule of the first 10 days will be announced initially, while the roster for the remaining games shall be announced once the dates for the general elections are made official.
“We don’t want to be in a situation where we announce the full IPL schedule and then the security agency informs us that they won’t be available to provide security for the specific venue games,” the IPL chairman added. “It takes a lot of logistical challenges to change the venue at the last moment, lot of machinery work behind the scenes, and they need time to conduct each IPL game. So we thought let’s wait and announce only the first few games scheduled. We will announce the complete schedule once we get a clear picture of which state will be holding elections on specific dates.”
The dates for the Lok Sabha polls are expected to be announced in early March. When asked if there’s any chance that the league might be staged elsewhere owing to the elections, Dhumal made it clear that “it won’t happen overseas. That is why we are waiting for Lok Sabha election dates, so that we can plan the venues accordingly.”
It’s not the first time the league has been staged at the same time as the general elections. Back in 2009, the second season of the IPL was moved to South Africa while in 2014, first 20 matches of the season were played in the UAE and the rest in India.
In 2019, while the league was staged at the same time as the Lok Sabha polls, all the games were staged in the country.
With the T20 World Cup to begin starting June 1, it is expected that the IPL will be concluded latest by the end of May.
