IPL 2020: Tournament To Begin On March 29 At Wankhede Stadium

The upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will begin on March 29. The tournament opener will be played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai with Mumbai Indians kicking off the campaign on their home ground. This means that the teams playing the first couple of games will miss the services of the Australian, English and Kiwi players as there will be two international series on at that point in time with Australia and New Zealand clashing in a T20I series that has the last game on March 29 and the England-Sri Lanka Test series which ends on March 31. According to an IANS report, a senior official of one of the franchises had earlier said that they were keeping fingers crossed that the IPL Governing Council will go back to the old format of having doubleheaders through the tournament and start around April 1. “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 had said. But looks like the IPL Governing Council is keen on doing away with too many doubleheaders and want to ensure that fans get the best of viewing time. (With Inputs From IANS)