The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 is set to get underway from March 22 and since the Lok Sabha elections are scheduled to take place this year, the cash-rich tournament will be held in two phases. The first leg, starting next Friday, will see the defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) locking horns with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the Chepauk. The BCCI has announced half the tournament’s fixture and will roll out the remaining schedule after the Election Commission of India announces the polling dates.
According to The Times of India, the second phase of the IPL 2024 might get shifted to the UAE, as it happened earlier in 2014. The report suggested that some of the BCCI officials are in the UAE to ‘explore the possibility’ of conducting the second half of the tournament in Dubai.
“The Election Commission of India will announce the election schedule on Saturday at 3 pm. After that, the BCCI will decide whether IPL matches should be moved to Dubai. Currently, a few top BCCI officials are in Dubai to explore the possibility of organizing the second half of the IPL in Dubai,” the report quoted the sources as saying.
The last time the IPL was held in the UAE was in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid outbreak. The games were played across three venues – Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.
It has also been learned that a few IPL franchises have collected the passports of their players as a precautionary measure if the second phase of IPL gets shifted out of India due to general elections. However, sources in BCCI have maintained that the league will take place in India only.
A few reports also suggested that the franchises have collected the passports as a precautionary measure to mitigate any validity issues in case of any last-minute changes.
Also Read | IPL Teams Collect Passports of Players as Precaution Before Lok Sabha Election Announcement
There was speculation before the start of the event that the 2024 edition of the IPL could be moved out of India because of the general elections just like in previous elections. However, the BCCI went on to announce the schedule for the first leg of IPL 2024.
(With Agency Inputs)
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