While the schedule for the first two weeks of the IPL 2024 was announced last month itself, from March 22-April 7, the plan for the remaining fixtures could be out soon. Initially, only a partial schedule for the IPL this year was announced, since this is a general elections year in the country, and managing the logistics could be nothing short of challenging. Hence it was revealed that the rest of the itinerary would only be decided upon, once the election dates were out.
On Friday, the Election Commission of India announced that the election dates will be made public on March 16; and that paves the way for the announcement of the rest of the IPL schedule. While there’s no clarity on when the remaining IPL schedule will be out, in all likelihood, it is expected to be announced by next week.
Meanwhile, there were a few reports suggesting that the tournament could be moved out, but the entire IPL could be completed in India itself. In fact, the chairman of the IPL Governing Council Arun Dhumal had also sounded confident, that the second phase would take place here only.
Speaking to Sportstar a few days back, he said, “Even in 2019, the IPL was played in a home-away format in its entirety despite the general elections. This time, too, once the dates for the elections are out and we have clarity about the dates and the phases for the polls, we can work out the next phase of the IPL.
“We would ideally want to have home and away games, but in case there’s a problem figuring out the (time), we will see how we can accommodate that. The idea is that nobody should get an advantage over the other team and there has to be uniformity. There should be equal opportunities for the team,” he added.
IPL in UAE, Not Possible
Dhumal went on to explain why it wasn’t feasible to conduct the matches in the UAE. “Given the time we have in April and May, it would be very difficult to take this tournament to any other country. If you talk about Dubai, it would be very hot around that time, and other teams have their bilateral commitments.
“Given the number of matches we have, I don’t think not many venues can take this load in such a short time. The team at BCCI is best equipped and we will take it as a challenge and have a good tournament,” he said.
IPL Schedule, Matches Could End by May 25-26
The tournament could in fact, get over early, in May itself, given the T20 World Cup begins on June 2 in the USA and West Indies, and India play their first match on June 6 vs Ireland. “We might have to increase double-headers, but we will be able to give better clarity once the polls are over,” he said.
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