No team gets to play in its home ground in the 2021 edition of IPL.
After conducting the last season in UAE due to COVID-19 crisis, the cash-rich event returns to India.
Six cities - Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Ahmedabad - will host the 60 matches of the competition this year with Ahmedabad staging the three play-offs and the final.
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The schedule for the marquee tournament, which will begin on April 9 and culminate on May 30, has been outlined in such a way that no team gets to play in its home ground.
This came after franchises such as Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Punjab Kings (PBKS) raised objections over BCCI’s six-venue proposal, which would have seen them not hosting any game this season.
However, the released schedule may not have pleased the five other teams.
"You are denying MS Dhoni to play his potential last IPL in Chennai. If there are to be no crowds, what stops CSK to play in Chennai and Mumbai Indians to play in Mumbai," one of the franchise officials quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
"Delhi have players like Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane and skipper Shreyas Iyer who are from Mumbai and the team plays its first three games at the Wankhede. They will have advantage just as Punjab Kings who have players like KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal, and coach Anil Kumble, and they play five games in Bangalore? Don't they have the advantage of being familiar with the conditions at the Chinnaswamy Stadium? The plan can be counter-productive."
The other concerns raised over the schedule have been over safety standards as the tournament will be played across six cities and a team will have to fly at least four times, which may increase the chances of bio-bubble breaches.
"Those inside the team bubble are not allowed to meet the owners of their franchise and here by having to fly four times, change hotels and buses, the players will get exposed to outsiders," a franchise official told Cricbuzz before adding, "No doubt, we will engage charter flights and private airports but there will always be questions over the sanctity of the bio bubbles."
According to the report, the reason to pick six venues rather than playing all the games in one state was to spread out the risk factor.
"It is a safer approach. What if the pandemic situation worsens in Maharashtra? Where do we go then? If now the situation worsens in Mumbai, or any of the other cities, we're prepared to host the tournament elsewhere," one of those involved with the scheduling of the tournament told Cricbuzz.