With every passing hour, developments around the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League are being tracked. All the confusion around the starting date and the venues seems to have been sorted if the recent reports are to be believed.
The latest media report claims that the 2022 edition of the tournament looks all set to kick-start from March 27. It also claims that the franchise owners have suggested Mumbai and Pune as the venues for the conduct of the entire competition. In addition, it is being learned that UAE is not totally out of the equation and is being considered as one of the potential venues along with South Africa, with a close eye on the COVID-19 situation in India.
As far as information that's coming
Owners have put forth 3 options keeping #COVID19 wave in mind
1. Mumbai and Pune if peak subsides
2. UAE as its been the tried and tested venue
3. SA as 3rd option
2 and 3 not in order but owners' preferences. Nothing on Sri Lanka.#IPL2022— Kushan Sarkar (@kushansarkar) January 22, 2022
No talk on Sri Lanka. And dubai or South Africa isn’t the preferred option. All would want India and greater Mumbai bec it will involve no travel, no airports etc.
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) January 22, 2022
While the competition generally happens in the months of April and May, with two more teams coming in as well as the organisers planning a reduction in the number of day matches, the tournament is expected to commence a week earlier than expected. This will allow the accommodation of the extra matches that will be played this year.
Prior to the actual cricketing action, the mega-auctions are set to take place in Bengaluru in the second week of February. For now, the existing sides have made their retention picks while the new teams- Lucknow and Ahmedabad- have already selected three draft players to get a level-playing field in the auction. Ahmedabad have picked Hardik Pandya, Rashid Khand and Shubman Gill as their first three players with Hardik being named the skipper. Lucknow, on the other hand, have named KL Rahul as the skipper of the franchise and have additionally included Marcus Stoinis and Ravi Bishnoi.
https://twitter.com/sportstigerapp/status/1484583462866944007
Meanwhile, BCCI would be extremely careful of the decision they take since last year IPL 2021 had to be pushed out of India after COVID had started impacting the players inside the bio-secure bubble. They would not want a repeat of that and are hence perhaps further mulling playing the tournament in just two neighbouring cities which have enough stadiums to not burden the pitches.
An official confirmation is still awaited and is expected in the coming weeks.
Also Read: IPL 2022: Chris Gayle and Ben Stokes to miss IPL 2022 Auction
