The 15th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will be played from the 26th March 2022. Recently announced by the IPL governing council that the League phase of the tournament will be conducted in Maharashtra only. The Final of the cash-rich T20 league will be played on 29th May.
The schedule was finalized on Thursday night. The management said that the league games will be divided into 2 cities namely Mumbai and Pune with 2 stadiums each. The four stadiums shortlisted are the Wankhede Stadium and Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai, the DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai, and the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Gahunje, in the outskirts of Pune – will host the league phase featuring 70 matches.
The venues for the playoffs are under review and will be finalized after considering the pandemic situation in the country. The Governing Council also decided to keep open the option of allowing crowds to attend the matches, subject to permission from the Maharashtra government.
The IPL schedule is most likely to release in the first week of March. The tournament will be played between 10 teams which include two new franchises Lucknow Super Giants and Gujrat Titans. Both teams were added last year in the month of October. Since the debacle last year during the course of the tournament, the tournament was halted mid-season and shifted to UAE in Sept-Oct.
All teams unanimously decided in the favour of BBCI to host the tournament in India. All teams agreed to limit the tournament in one city. BCCI also stated that the reason for the breach of the secure bio bubble was due to excessive travel.
As for the format during the league phase, it could not be confirmed whether the IPL will follow the 2011 concept, the first time the tournament featured 10 teams.
In the 2011 edition, the 10 teams were split into two loose groups, and the tournament comprised 70 league matches and four playoff games, with all the teams ranked in one composite league table. During the league phase, every team played the same number of league matches, which was 14.
Each team played the other four in their group both home and away (eight matches), four of the teams in the other group once each (four matches, either home or away), and the remaining team in the other group twice, both home and away.
A random draw decided the composition of the groups as well as who played whom across the groups once and twice.
We’ll have to wait and see what the management decides and what are the decisions they make. Which team are you most looking forward to cheering for this season?
image CC indianexpress
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