MUMBAI: With the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup next year in England and Wales starting on 30 May, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is likely to set its start date on 23 March in order to give the national team’s fast bowlers a sufficient amount of time for recovery ahead of the marquee event, ESPNcricinfo reports.
India captain Virat Kohli and head coach Ravi Shastri have made this request during a series of meetings in October held in Delhi and Hyderabad, which was chaired by the Committee of Administrators (CoA) and attended by the chairman of selection committee MSK Prasad as well as Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane, Kohli’s deputies in the ODI and Test sides respectively.
Kohli and Shastri also mooted over the possibility of some key players getting adequate rest from the IPL itself and be compensated for the same. However, IPL COO Hemang Amin has made it clear that it required the consent of the players’ respective franchises, which won’t be a simple process by any means.
When it comes to hosting the tournament, if it begins on 23 March, a large chunk of the tournament could be held in India and not being shifted to South Africa or UAE entirely as a back-up option. However, a final call is expected to be taken when the Central Election Commission announces the dates of the country’s 2019 general elections.
In 2014 when the last elections were held, the IPL was moved to the UAE for the first half of the tournament while the second half returned to India.
