BCCI to wait for ECI poll date announcement to finalise the IPL 2024 schedule

IPL 2024 and 18th Lok Sabha Elections will happen simultaneously next year.

As India will be voting for 18th Lok Sabha members next year, the possibility of clashing the election dates with Indian Premier Leagues season 17 are very high. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will be waiting for the Election Commission of India’s poll date announcement to finalise the IPL schedule. In high probability, both events will go simultaneously in April and May 2024. 

The Indian Premier League governing council held a meeting with franchise representatives and BCCI officials in New Delhi to discuss the schedule of the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League. IPL Governing Council (GC) decided after the meeting that they will be waiting for the Election Commission of India to finalise the dates first. The tournament will likely begin from the last week of March while the first phase voting might take place in the first week of April. 

BCCI to wait for ECI dates

A senior official informed the press after the meeting and said, “We had discussions around the IPL schedule and we have no option but to wait for a word from the Home Ministry and Election Commission of India on the polling schedule for General Elections, which is likely to be around the IPL’s time.” In 2019, IPL was held in India along with the elections while in 2009 and 2014 (one phase in India), the league moved out of India. 

Officials also confirmed that there are no discussions about shifting the IPL out of India. He added, “There is no question or even thought of moving it out of India. We need to wait for the polling schedule and based on that we will have discussions with regards to security and other arrangements and then take it forward from there on. We are very confident of hosting the entire tournament in India and discussions with all stakeholders will begin soon.” 

The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the General Elections 2019 dates in the first week of February and the phase of polling was done on 11th April. The first match of the league was played on 23rd March 2019. General Election 2019’s counting was done on 23rd May while the final of the IPL 2019 was played on 12th May 2019. IPL 2009 was shifted to South Africa while IPL 2014 was played in UAE. 

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