The 15th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will begin on March 26 and the final will be held on May 29, the leagues’ Governing Council (GC) announced on Friday.
The IPL GC, in a meeting on Friday, also said that the upcoming season will be played in a bio-secure environment at a single hub to avoid air travel, considered as a major threat for the spread of COVID-19 infection, thereby affecting the players and tournament.
As reported earlier, the tournament will be held entirely in the state of Maharashtra with 55 matches in Mumbai and 15 matches in Pune.
Notably, a total of 70 league matches will be played across four international-standard venues in Mumbai and Pune — Wankhede Stadium and DY Patil Stadium to host 20 matches each, while Brabourne Stadium and MCA International Stadium, Pune will host 15 matches each.
The GC also said that the venue for the playoff matches will be decided later.
Each team will play five teams twice while facing the remaining four teams only once (two only home as well as away).
To decide which teams will play against whom, teams have been divided in two virtual groups based on the number of times being crowned the IPL Champions followed by the number of times the teams reached the final of the tournament.
Group A comprises of Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants.
Group B includes Chennai Super Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans.
Each team will play twice with the teams in their group and with the team in the same row in the second group. With the rest of the teams in the second group they will play only once during the season.
For example, in Group A, Mumbai will play two matches each against Kolkata, Rajasthan, Delhi and Lucknow. Mumbai will also play two matches against Chennai and one match each against other teams in Group B.
Similarly, in Group B, Bangalore will play two matches against Chennai, Hyderabad, Punjab and Gujarat. Bangalore will also play two matches against Rajasthan and one match each against other teams in Group A.
Earlier in January, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Secretary Jay Shah had announced that the 2022 season of IPL will begin in the last week of March and will conclude in May.
After a meeting with the owners of the franchises of the league, Shah, in an official statement, had said: “I am delighted to confirm that the 15th season of the IPL will start in the last week of March and will run until May end. A majority of the team owners expressed their wish that the tournament be held in India. The BCCI was always keen on staging the 2022 edition that will see two new teams – Ahmedabad and Lucknow – in India,”
“I can tell you that we will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that IPL stays in India. The BCCI has not compromised on the health and safety of its stakeholders in the past and will concurrently work on Plan B since the COVID-19 situation with new variants remains fluid,” he added.
Significantly, the upcoming season will see the newly inducted franchises — Ahmedabad and Lucknow — in action.