The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will wait for the Election Commission of India (ECI) announcement on the polling schedule for the General Elections 2024 before finalising the IPL 2024 schedule.
At a meeting in New Delhi, the IPL schedule was discussed between the IPL Governing Council (GC), representatives of some franchises and senior BCCI officials and it was decided to wait for the polling schedule before finalising the dates for the cash-rich league.
“We had discussions around the IPL schedule and we have no option but to wait for a word from the Home Ministry and Election Commission of India on the polling schedule for General Elections, which is likely to be around the IPL’s time,” says a senior official who was present in the meeting.
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There have been instances in the past – 2009 and 2014 – when the IPL was moved out of the country due to security concerns during the elections but the Indian cricket board is confident of hosting the entire tournament in India, just like they did during the 2019 polls.
“There is no question or even thought of moving it out of India. We need to wait for the polling schedule and based on that we will have discussions with regards to security and other arrangements and then take it forward from there on. We are very confident of hosting the entire tournament in India and discussions with all stakeholders will begin soon,” adds the official.
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The 2019 General Election was held in seven phases from April 11, 2019, to May 19, 2019, and the counting of votes was done on May 23. ECI announced the schedule on March 10 back in 2019. More than two weeks before the ECI announcement, the BCCI announced the schedule of the first two weeks of IPL 2019 on February 19 and mentioned that the remainder would be announced after the complete poll schedule.
A similar approach could likely be followed this time around with the board locking a tentative schedule as we get closer to the tournament window. India will finish the home Test series against England on March 11 and the cash-rich league is likely to begin shortly after the five-Test series culminates.
With the 2024 T20 World Cup starting in the first week of June, IPL 2024 is likely to be completed earlier than the 2023 edition which ended on May 29. For an early finish, the upcoming IPL will have to start early and that will also allow the BCCI to host a lot of games before the polling gets underway.
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