BCCI Planning to organise IPL 2021 tournament across six cities

The Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) has reportedly narrowed down six cities to host the IPL 2021 tournament. The initial plans of Mumbai and Pune being host cities along with playoffs and finals in Ahmedabad were scrapped seeing the rise in the number of covid cases in these cities.

The fourteenth season of Indian Premier League is now said to be hosted among six Indian cities namely, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. Delhi was selected instead of Hyderabad owing to some concerns with the local cricket association of latter.

According to various reports, the IPL franchises are sitting on the fence after the decision. Some are willing to wait and see how BCCI goes about planning the matches and ensures safety of players in these six cities while others are unhappy with the decision. The board has apparently hasn’t had any word with the franchises yet.

The tournament which is scheduled to begin on 11th April and the final tentatively on 6th June, will likely be played in the home and away format as bio-secure bubbles will have to be set up across all the venues due to Covid-19. The matches are likely to be played without spectators in some venues while other centers will be allowing a fifty percent seating capacity to maintain the social distancing protocols. 

BCCI has confirmed that no change will be there in the format of IPL 2021. However, the teams might be divided into groups and matches held venue-wise. The teams will play within their respective groups before moving out and playing out with others. This will ensure each team to play home and away matches in the group itself and afterwards with other groups as well.

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