IPL 2021: Franchises in a fix as BCCI aims to host IPL in 6 cities; Maharashtra says no to crowds - reports

Earlier the IPL 2021 was supposed to happen just in Maharashtra and Ahmedabad.

The BCCI has seemingly deviated from its original plans of hosting the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) in just two cities with league stages in four stadiums across Mumbai and playoffs in Ahmedabad.  

Now they are looking to host the entire IPL 2021 edition across six venues in India and this has left the franchises in a fix. Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, and Delhi have been shortlisted to host this year’s IPL. Delhi, it is learnt, was included in the list later, after the board was convinced that they could not include Hyderabad for reasons concerning the local cricket association.

The Maharashtra government, while giving permission to have matches in Wankhede Stadium, has said no to the spectators. This is like a similar order which sees no crowds in the three ODIs against England in Pune, which will now be played behind closed doors due to the sudden spike in Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra.

IPL 2021: BCCI looking at multiple cities to host 2021 IPL tournament, says reports

As per reports of the Times of India, the IPL 2021 is supposed to begin in the second week of April (tentatively 11th) and conclude in the opening week of June (tentatively 6th). They might have to conduct the matches at some venues which may allow fans up to only 50% of the stadium’s capacity, while some venues may not allow any crowd in the stadium for the matches.

BCCI is yet to consult with the franchises about its plans yet. Franchises who have learnt about this decision unofficially, are not happy at all. Some are willing to wait and see how BCCI goes about organizing the tournament across six cities and preparing bio-secure bubbles across these venues for the smooth conduct of the tournament.

“Obviously, it’s scary. The earlier idea of hosting it in one or two cities sounded far better. After all, the 2020 edition was conducted between three venues and it went well,” a franchise representative said.

The BCCI has also proposed that the eight franchises should be divided into groups and matches should be conducted venue-wise, where all teams that are part of one group play their home and away games between them before moving to another group at another venue, so on and so forth.

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“The format of the tournament will not change. It’s the same home-and-away format, with each team hosting seven and traveling for the other seven. That’ll mean a total of 60 matches like it is conducted every year. The grouping of teams is only to ensure that preparing bio-secure bubbles becomes easier and there’s less confusion,” say those in the know.

“Franchises had started preparing, thinking it was only going to be between Mumbai and Pune, with the playoffs in Ahmedabad. Those plans change now. Franchises will want to know more and that will happen soon,” say sources.

(Times of India inputs)