The Indian Premier League is scheduled to kick off from March 22, Cricbuzz reported. The start of the tournament was almost confirmed to be March 22 as per the previous media reports and multiple officials have now said that it will begin on that day only.
"The league will kick off on March 22 in Chennai," Arun Dhumal, IPL chairman said as quoted by Cricbuzz. The tournament will start at Chennai Super Kings' home ground and there will also be an inaugural ceremony before the start of the tournament. However, the opponents of the tournament opener are not confirmed yet. "It has not been finalized yet," Dhumal said on the opponents. "We have no information about the opponents as of now," CSK's CEO Kasi Viswanathan said.
IPL will be announcing a partial schedule of the tournament in the coming two days. The full schedule of the tournament will be out after the Election Commission of India confirms the dates for the general elections. Dhumal said that the IPL body will announce the schedule for the first 10-12 days as of now. "Initially, we will announce the programme for the first 10-12 days," he added.
Also, as per the same report, there can be more centres involved in the tournament than just 10. The ECI will likely announce the election dates between the second and third week of March, following which IPL can confirm the full schedule. Dhumal is confident that the tournament will be held in India only.
This will be the 17th edition of the tournament and Chennai Super Kings are the defending champions of the title. They are now tied with Mumbai Indians with five IPL titles a piece and both look to add more to their trophy cabinet. While CSK will be led by their captain cool MS Dhoni, MI have a captaincy change with Hardik Pandya taking over from Rohit Sharma.
He was traded by the MI franchise for Rs. 15 crores from Gujarat Titans, the team with which Hardik won the title in his maiden captaincy attempt and almost took them to second on the trot in 2022 only to fall short at the end to CSK. His captaincy absence will be filled by young batter Shubman Gill, who was in sensational form during the previous edition of the tournament.
