Amidst the world crisis, BCCI has once again provided the fans of the game around the globe something to cheer about. With all the speculations pervading the air for last month or so about the schedule of the 14th edition of IPL BCCI has finally circulated the much-awaited news on Sunday after the IPL Governing Council’s meeting.
The cricket festival will be back once again in India as BCCI decided to host IPL 2021 in India starting from 9th April. Although the conduct of this year’s edition has been tweaked a little in the wake of Covid-19 protocols and safety measures. BCCI has slated Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai & Kolkata as the only venues where all the 56 league matches and the knockout stage will be hosted.
Out of the 56 league matches, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata & Bengaluru will host 10 matches each while Ahmedabad and Delhi will host 8 matches each. Whereas the playoff matches, as well as the final, will be played at the newly refurbished and world’s largest cricket stadium- Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.
The playoffs are scheduled to take place on 25th, 26th and 28th May whereas the Final will be on 30th May. The first clash will be seen between the defending champions Mumbai Indians and the flamboyant Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai.
No home advantage this season
Another notable change this year will be that all the matches will happen at neutral ground with no team exploiting the home advantage. There will be a total of 11 doubleheaders to take place where 6 teams will play three afternoon matches & two teams will play two afternoon matches. The day matches will kick-off from 3:30 pm whereas the night matches will lit up the show from 7:30 pm.
