The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced that the Indian Premier League will have 70 league games that will be played across four venues in Mumbai and Pune. The venues for the playoffs will be decided later on.
It was already speculated that the tournament will start on March 26, Saturday, which will give the broadcasters a favourable window to begin the tournament with a double-header on the second day. The governing body has confirmed the same and finalised the date for the final as well.
Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium will host 20 matches while 15 matches will take place at CCI. The DY Patil Stadium will have 20 games and 15 clashes will be held in Pune’s MCA International Stadium.
“The IPL Governing Council at its meeting held yesterday made the following key decisions regarding the TATA IPL 2022 Season. The 15th edition of the Indian Premier League will be played in a bio-secure environment at a single hub to avoid air travel which is considered as a major threat for the spread of COVID-19 infection, thereby affecting the players and the League/matches,” an official release from IPL read.
“The tournament will kickstart from 26th March, 2022 and the final will be played on 29th May, 2022. A total of 70 league matches will be played across four international standard venues in Mumbai and Pune. The venue for the playoff matches will be decided later,” it added.
The 10 teams have been divided into two groups and each team will play 14 games in the group stage. The breakdown is such that each team will play two games against opponents of their own group and play 2 games against one opponent in the other group. This will make 10 matches in total and for the rest 4 matches, they will square off once against the last 4 teams of the other group.
“Each team will play twice with the teams in their group and with the team in the same row in the second group. With the rest of the teams in the second group, they will play only once during the season.”