All IPL 2019 games in India despite general elections

BCCI's acting honorary secretary Amitabh Choudhary. Pic/PTI

The 12th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is a few weeks away, but there are some issues yet to be fixed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). After the IPL final, the Indian team are set to face the World Cup challenge in England, but how will the workload of the Indian players be managed during the high-intensity tournament is not yet decided.

Discussions on starting the IPL games earlier than their usual time are still on. However, the good news for IPL fans is that despite the general elections, all matches will be played in India.

"Though the general elections will overlap with the IPL, we have decided to keep the IPL within the territories of India. Once the election schedule is announced, we will know which areas or states are going to the polls in which phase. Accordingly, we will announce the IPL schedule," BCCI's acting honorary secretary Amitabh Choudhary told the media yesterday at a press conference to announce a commercial tie-up with an automobile company for IPL 2019 When asked whether the Board has reached a consensus over player workload with the franchises, Choudhary said: "Not yet. At this stage, it is not proper to divulge but we also have the selectors working on it [workload management]."

Last year, the organisers had advanced the starting time of the playoffs to 7pm and want to do the same this year too, but a final decision has yet to be made.
"It is still under evaluation. We are still considering whether to advance it or keep it at 8pm because it also affects the afternoon game. For the last so many years, we have been playing 12 to 15 games in the afternoon, so it impacts that.

The players' wellbeing will have to be considered if we are advancing it because if we advance the 8pm game then we have to advance the afternoon game too. Hopefully, within a week or so, we will announce the timings once we get the remaining schedule ready," said IPL CEO Hemang Amin.

BCCI has already announced the IPL schedule for the first two weeks which includes 17 matches with the opening game between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore to be played on March 23 at Chennai.

Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates