On Monday, March 25, Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) released the complete schedule of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). The tournament, which kicked off last week, will take place entirely in India even in light of the Lok Sabha elections taking place in the country at the same time.
The final of the tournament will be held in Chennai on May 26, while the eliminator and Qualifier 1 will be held in Ahmedabad on May 21 and May 22. The Qualifier 2 will also take place in Chennai on May 24.
Earlier, BCCI had announced the schedule for only the first two weeks of the tournament, till April 7. Now that the Election Commission has announced the polling dates for the elections, the BCCI has finalised the schedule for the remainder of the season keeping in view the polling dates in different states around the country.
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The final match of phase 1 which was announced earlier, is scheduled to take place on April 7 between Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow. The second phase will start without any delay next day on April 8 with KKR facing CSK at the Chepauk stadium in Chennai.
In the second phase, Delhi Capitals, who used Vishakhapatnam for their first 2 matches, will return to capital Delhi for the rest of their league matches. Meanwhile, Punjab will also be using the Dharamsala stadium for two of their matches along with their home stadium in Punjab. Rajasthan are another team using 2 states for their home matches, with Guwahati hosting two of their home games.
Notably, there were speculations that some of the matches may be held outside India this year due to Lok Sabha elections, and with security agencies stretched thin to ensure smooth elections. IPL has been held outside India during General Elections in 2009 and 2014 respectively, in light of the elections. However, in 2019, IPL was held in India despite coinciding with Lok Sabha elections.
The Lok Sabha elections start on April 19, and will be completed on June 1 through 7 phases of voting. The counting of votes will take place on June 4.
