The Indian Premier League head honchos have decided to adopt the template used during the 2019 general elections as far as conducting the 2024 edition of the IPL is concerned.
It was in 2019 that the IPL was hosted in India in its entirety for the first time despite date clashes with the Lok Sabha elections.
IPL chairman Arun Dhumal (brother of Anurag Thakur, Minister of Sports, Youth Affairs and Minister of Information and Broadcasting) has confirmed that the 17th edition of the IPL will go ahead as scheduled in the month of March-May and will be played alongside the General Elections to choose the next Prime Minister of India.
“The IPL will be held in India next year. We will need time to make the schedule because it will be made after the Election Committee announces the dates of the general elections. We will have to see when the different states have their elections and will make the schedule accordingly. We will need to wait and will need to work with the government,” Dhumal told Jagran News, also stating that the schedule of the IPL will be drawn up after the dates of the elections have been announced.
With excess police officers required on the dates of the elections in various districts, cities will have trouble providing security for the IPL if the dates coincide with the voting process. The IPL faced a similar issue in 2019, when the IPL schedule was made in accordance with the election dates, giving centres games either when the voting in the state had been over or was yet to begin.
