IPL 2021 to begin from April 9, announce BCCI

The 14th season of the Indian Premier League, IPL 2021, will begin on April 9, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has announced on Sunday.

In a mail to all the eight franchises of the tournament, the Indian board has confirmed that the tourney will take place in six cities – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata.

Surprisingly Mumbai has been named as a host city as there were doubts that any of the Maharashtra cities will get the hosting rights due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases. However, the matches will be played behind closed doors in the initial phase of the tournament, and the final decision to let the spectators attend the matches will be taken later.

The opener of the tournament will take place between defending champions Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. Meanwhile, the playoff stages and the final of the lucrative event will be played at the grand Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, where the last two Test matches against England took place.

The first Qualifier will be played on 25th May while the Eliminator will take place on the following day. The second Qualifier will be hosted on 28th May whereas the final of the Twenty20 tournament will take place on 30th May.

During the group stages, each team will play in four of the six cities. The 56 league stage matches have been divided into 10 games each in Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bengaluru, whereas Delhi and Ahmedabad will host eight matches each. The afternoon games will begin at 3:30 PM IST, while the evening matches will kickstart from 7:30 PM IST.

11 doubleheaders will be played during the weekend, with six teams playing three-afternoon matches each and two teams playing two. The Indian board also revealed that the schedule has been made in such a manner that every team will travel only three times during the league stage that will finish on May 23, to curb the traveling of the teams amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

“After hosting the tournament safely and successfully in the UAE last year with all safety protocols in place, the BCCI is confident of hosting the IPL at home with health and safety of players and all people involved being paramount,” BCCI said in the release.