IPL 2021 to begin on April 9; matches to take place across six venues

The Indian Premier League (IPL) will begin from April 9 with defending champions Mumbai Indians taking on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Chennai in the opener, the Governing Council has announced. Other than Chennai, matches this season will take place in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. The final will be played on May 30 at the Narendra Modi International Stadium in Ahmedabad, where the last two India-England Tests were also played. The playoffs too will take place at the same venue.

Each team will play in four venues during the league stage. As many as 10 matches will be hosted by each of Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru. Ahmedabad and Delhi, on the other hand, will play host to eight matches each. Also, all games will be played at neutral venues, taking home advantage completely out of the equation. 

There will be a total of 11 double headers. The games in the afternoon will take place at 3:30 PM IST, while the evening matches will be played at 7:30 PM IST. 

The BCCI release further added: “After hosting the tournament safely and successfully in the UAE last year with all safety protocols in place, the BCCI is confident of hosting the IPL at home with health and safety of players and all people involved being paramount." 

"The fixtures of the tournament have been mapped in a way that every team will travel only three times during the league stage, thus reducing commute and minimising risk. The VIVO IPL this year at home will be played behind closed doors to begin with and a call on allowing spectators will be taken at a later stage of the tournament.”