The Indian Premier League (IPL) is all set to return to its original home and away format from next year. With the overall scenario gradually coming back to normal, the BCCI decided to revert to the original format, which had to be tweaked during the competition’s last three editions owing to the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Such a decision by the BCCI was on expected lines as in this year’s IPL, the playoff games and the final were held here at Eden Gardens and in Ahmedabad at almost full capacity, after Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune hosted the league-stage matches with partial crowds.
Board president Sourav Ganguly, in a letter to the state associations on Tuesday, wrote: “The next season of men’s IPL will also go back to the home and away with all ten teams playing their home matches at their designated venues.”
The last time the IPL was held in its original format was in its 2019 edition. The one in 2020 was held entirely in the UAE behind closed doors as the pandemic had just struck India.
The second phase of IPL 2021 had to be shifted to the UAE again because of multiple Covid-19 cases in the teams’ camps after the first half was held across four venues: Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.
Sourav’s letter also mentions that the women’s IPL, which, it said, is expected to start “early next year”. “The women’s IPL will be held in February-March, followed by the men’s IPL. We are still working on the format and will announce it after some time,” Sourav said at a city hotel on Thursday.