The much-awaited Indian Premier League (IPL) is all set to begin on March 22, according to what league chairman Arun Dhumal said on Tuesday. Even though there are elections coming up soon, the IPL games will happen only in India. The exact schedule for the 17th IPL season isn’t out yet because of the elections, which are expected to be in April and May.
Dhumal said they’ll start by announcing the schedule for the first 15 days. They’ll decide the rest of the games after they know the election dates.
“We’re planning to start the tournament on March 22. We’re working closely with government groups, and we’ll put out the first part of the schedule first. All the games will be in India,” Dhumal told PTI. “The dates for the Lok Sabha polls will probably be out early next month,” Dhumal added. The IPL was played entirely in another country only once, in 2009, in South Africa. In 2014, some matches were in the UAE because of the elections. But in 2019, the IPL happened in India even with the elections. The IPL final will probably be on May 26, just before the T20 World Cup starts. India’s first World Cup game will be against Ireland in New York on June 5. The tournament starts with a match between the USA and Canada on June 1. The first IPL match is usually between the previous year’s finalists. This time, it’s between the Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans. The player auction for the 2024 season was in December last year. Australian player Mitchell Starc became the most expensive IPL player ever when the Kolkata Knight Riders bought him for Rs 24.75 crore.