IPL 2022: Mumbai And Pune Finalized As Venues For The Tournament

IPL 2022 is likely to start from March 27 and the BCCI has finalized its venues for the 15th season of the cash-rich league. The meeting was held between the BCCI officials, the IPL governing council and the franchise owners where it was four venues were zeroed in. The IPL 2022 season will be a 10-team event with as many as 74 matches to be played.

Mumbai’s three stadiums— Wankhede, Brabourne and DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai — and Pune were shortlisted as possible venues. As per the initial discussions, the BCCI wants to hold the tournament in Maharashtra and the first game is likely to be held in Mumbai. But then Pune also came into the picture given its close proximity with Mumbai.

The BCCI has also kept South Africa as a viable option given the seriousness of Covid cases in Mumbai. A final decision on the venues will be given to the franchises by February 20 after monitoring the situation in Mumbai.

The possibility of UAE hosting IPL 2022 was also discussed in the meeting. The franchise owners also preferred UAE over South Africa to cut down the overall costs. However, the impact of due has forced the BCCI to count out UAE as an option. UAE successfully hosted the two back to back IPL seasons in 2020 and 2021. However, the dew factor played a big role in impacting the outcome of the games. The same was seen in the T20 World Cup staged in the UAE as well.

IPL 2022: UAE May Be Counted Out Due To The Impact Of Dew Factor

One of the key reasons for choosing Maharashtra was that schools were asked to reopen from January 24, giving encouraging signs for the BCCI to look forward to.

Discussion with the Maharashtra Cricket Association has already begun regarding the successful staging of IPL 2022 with its former president Sharad Pawar playing a key role. The IPL 2022 mega auctions are slated to be held in Bengaluru between February 12-13 as originally planned.

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