IPL 2025: BCCI announces official start date

The 18th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is set to begin on March 23, 2025. The starting date of India's prestigious cricket tournament has been changed by more than a week. However, there has been no announcement on the date of the final yet.

The decision to change the starting date was announced by the BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla. It is believed that this decision was taken during the BCCI's special general meeting in which the board officially appointed its new secretary and treasurer.

Also read: WPL 2025 to be held across 4 venues as BCCI makes historic decision

IPL 2025 set to begin on March 23

The starting date of IPL 2025 was March 14 earlier. While speaking to the reporters after BCCI's SGM, Rajeev Shukla announced that the tournament will begin on March 23 now. "IPL will begin from March 23," Shukla told the reporters.

#WATCH | Mumbai: BCCI Vice President Rajeev Shukla says, "Devajit Saikia elected new BCCI secretary and Prabhtej Singh Bhatia elects as BCCI treasurer...IPL is going to start from 23rd March..." pic.twitter.com/Jd6x7U8Hou

— ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2025

While Rajeev Shukla revealed the starting date, he didn't tell anything about the change in dates for the playoffs and the final. Since the starting dates have been changed, those dates are likely to be changed as well. Those developments will be announced later.

Good news for players involved in Champions Trophy

It is to be noted that the final of the Champions Trophy 2025 will take place on March 9. Since the IPL's starting date has been forwarded, it will give the players the required amount of rest after the tournament.

The IPL is a long tournament which goes on for two months and the players have to face harsh conditions as well. The change of dates might have been done keeping that aspect in mind.

According to the earlier schedule, the players in the Champions Trophy final would have just four-five days to prepare for the league. But now, they will have two weeks to prepare themselves for the prestigious tournament.

The Champions Trophy will begin from February 19, 2025. All the matches of the tournament, except the ones involving India, will be held in Pakistan. Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Karachi will be the cities to host the tournament in Pakistan.

However, India will play all its matches in Dubai after they didn't get the required permission from the government to travel to Pakistan. If India qualifies for the semi-final or the final, they will continue to play in Pakistan.

BCCI's new secretary and treasurer officially announced

Apart from the discussion on the Indian Premier League, the BCCI also elected Devajit Saikia and Prabhtej Singh Bhatia as the board's new secretary and treasurer officially.

They were elected unopposed after the posts were vacated by Jay Shah and Ashish Shelar respectively. Jay Shah is currently the Chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and his tenure began from December 1, 2024. Meanwhile, Shelar resigned after taking oath as a minister in Maharashtra's government.