New Delhi, Jan 22: Indian Premier League (IPL) will start on April 7 and the final will be played on May 27. The opening and final matches of the cash-rich tournament is scheduled to take place in Mumbai. According to IPL Commissioner Rajeev Shukla the opening ceremony of IPL 11 will take place on April 6 in Mumbai but the opening match is on April 7.
Shukla also confirmed that the IPL governing council has decided to shift the start of the matches following a request by the broadcasters. The IPL matches till the 10th edition of the tournament used to start at 4 pm and 8 pm. “The broadcasters requested for a change in timings and IPL governing council in principal has accepted it,” IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla said.
IPL 2018 Auction: Here's The Full List of Marquee Players
According to Shukla while the 4 pm match will start at 5:30 pm, the 8 pm game will be advanced to 7 pm.
Kings XI Punjab will play four of their home games in Mohali and three in Indore, while the home matches of Rajasthan Royals, who are returning to IPL after serving a two-year ban, will be decided after the Rajasthan High court’s hearing on January 24. Chennai Super Kings, too, are returning to the tournament after a two-year-ban.
The five other teams are Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore.
There are a total of 16 marquee players from India and overseas. A total of 578 players will take part in the auction, scheduled to take place in Bengaluru on January 27-28. While the eight teams have retained 18 players, 182 slots are up for grabs. There are 62 capped and 298 uncapped Indian cricketers will vie for the available slots with 182 capped overseas cricketers, 34 uncapped overseas players and two cricketers from Associate Nations.
The highest reserve price is Rs 2 crore and 36 players, including 13 Indians, have opted for the top bracket. The marquee players from India are Ravichandran Ashwin, Gautam Gambhir, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Yuzvendra Chahal and Karn Sharma. The overseas players in the Rs 2 crore reserve price list are Christopher Gayle, Ben Stokes, Kane Williamson, Glenn Maxwell, Joe Root, Mitchell Starc, Faf du Plessis, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Shakib Hasan.
(With PTI inputs)