The upcoming changes in the 13th IPL and other updates
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is one of
the most followed cricket tournaments worldwide. It is an annual professional
T20 cricket league in India that has been around since 2007 when it was founded
by the Board of Control for Cricket in India or BCCI.
This year is the 13th edition of the IPL
and it has been recently announced when the league will finally start. IPL 2020
or now also named as the Vivo IPL will begin on March 29 and will be held at
the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The last day of the said tournament will be on
May 24.
Many cricket fans are now surely looking
forward to this year’s IPL especially since this year’s auction is also already
finished. There are a total of 972 cricketers
listed for this year’s IPL, but there were only 73 positions to be filled.
Hyderabad, Rajasthan, and Punjab all ended
up having 25 players while the other leagues have 23 or 24. Only Bangalore
ended up with just 21 players in total. All leagues maxed out the allowed
overseas players in each team, which is eight.
For the IPL 2020 auction, Pat Cummins seems
to be the most expensive purchase. He will now be playing for Kolkata Knight
Riders. When it comes to the Indian players, Piyush Chawla is the most
expensive. His contract is worth almost a million dollars. He will now be
playing for the Chennai Super Kings. Overall, there is a total of 20 transfers
that happened between the teams during the transfer window.
Even the punters are most likely already
thinking about the bets they will place for IPL 2020. Even if the match
schedules are not yet released, the locals are probably already looking for an online cricket betting site with Indian
rupees as a payment option.
Surely, not only India will place their
bets on the IPL 2020. The IPL is known to have ranked 6 on the 2014 list of the
most popular sports tournament worldwide. This means that countries, where
cricket is big, may also be placing their bets online for this.
Now, this year’s IPL is longer than how it
used to be. IPL 2020 has a 57-day window and this means that double headers may
not necessary anymore. Since this might be how the IPL will be moving forward,
there may be no more double headers in the next IPLs.
The 57-window is just one change for this
year’s IPL. Another thing that could change is the starting time of the
matches. Previously, matches would start in the afternoon, at around 4 PM, but
this year, it is likely that the matches will start at 7:30 PM.
This is something that may be seen as
either good
or bad by cricket fans who’d like to watch the matches live.
There are a few reasons as to why the
league is planning on moving the starting time of the matches. These changes
are based on how the IPL went in the last few years and based on that, last
year’s matches. There were matches that started later than 7:30 PM and this
became a problem for some as a lot of matches last year ended really late. The
locals had a hard time going home because of this.
Franchises have said that matches scheduled
as early as 4 PM can be tough for the broadcasters, but surely this isn’t
really the case.
It does seem like the best solution is to
just start the games in the afternoon, but if that’s the case, franchises may
also have a hard time filling out the seats of the venues. Most of the matches
will happen on a weekday and not a lot will be available as early as 4 PM to
watch the matches live as weekdays are workdays.
Still, despite the possibility that the
matches will start at 7:30 PM, there are still some who think that it will
still be a struggle. Venues, where the IPL will be held, are found in busy
districts and traveling from home or work to the stadium can take up a lot of
time. Many might just miss the start of the game, so this is still something
that the organizers will have to consider.
It’s still unknown as to when the complete
schedule of the matches will be released. Eight teams will be competing this
year and here they are:
- Kings XI Punjab
- Delhi Capitals
- Kolkata Knight Riders
- Chennai Super Kings
- Mumbai Indians
- Rajasthan Royals
- Sunrise Hyderabad
- Royal Challengers Bangalore