MUMBAI: And then there were eight! All eight Indian Premier League franchises have shot down the proposal put forward by new IPL broadcast rights partner Star India and endorsed by the league’s governing council to change match timings for the 2018 edition of world cricket’s biggest annual jamboree.
As per Star Sports’ proposal, on the days of double headers, matches should start at 5.30 PM and 7 PM instead of the traditional 4 PM and 8 PM starts.
The tournament broadcaster was keen on the new timings in order to bump up ratings and viewership. “There will be no problem on days with just a single match but there will be a big one when there are doubleheaders. They won’t get the complete three-hour quota and instead will have to share it with two matches. The overlap will result in one-and-a-half hours of each IPL match losing out on viewers,” a franchise official told Indian Express.
There was also a proposal to advance the 4pm matches by an hour but the franchises don’t seem keen on that idea either. IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla has stated the final decision on the matter would be taken soon.
IPL 2018 will kick off on April 7 in Mumbai.
