The Indian Premier League 2020 will reportedly start on March with defending champions Mumbai Indians opening their title defence at the Wankhede Stadium.
A Delhi Capitals official has reportedly confirmed this to the IANS news agency. An early start is proposed to get rid of too many double headers.
“I am told that the 2020 edition of the IPL will start on March 29 at Wankhede,” the official has told the news agency.
However, the March end starting schedule will deprive the teams of the services of their Australia, England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka players as some of the players might be occupied with their national team duties.
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Australia and New Zealand are scheduled to finish their bilateral series on March 29 with the last T20 International. They means the players engaged in the match will need at least a couple of days’ time to join their respective IPL teams.
England will finish their Test series against Sri Lanka on March 31. If the Test goes the full length, the players engaged in the match will need several more days to be available for the IPL.
“See, while the Australia-New Zealand series ends with the final T20I being played on March 29, the second Test of the series between England and Sri Lanka technically ends only on March 31. In such a scenario, you start the season minus your big players and that isn’t a happy occasion. If we do start from April 1, the scenario looks so much better. Hopefully, the IPL GC will see what we are speaking about makes for a consideration,” the official has told the agency.
As expected earlier, an April 1 start would have increased at least three doubleheaders.
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