The Indian Premier League’s (IPL’s) 2022 edition is likely to be played at six venues — four in Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad — from March 27 to May 28.
Sportstar understands that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has shortlisted five venues in Maharashtra for the 70-match league stage. The playoffs, including the final, are likely to be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Risk avoidance
In a bid to avoid flight risk in the wake of COVID-19, the BCCI has all but zeroed in on the Maharashtra corridor. It is understood that the proposal was informally discussed with the representatives of the franchises during the last week’s Player Auction.
Sensing the need to maintain the nature of the pitches, the BCCI has added the Jio Stadium in Navi Mumbai to the earlier four venues. Besides the four tried and tested venues in the Mumbai-Pune corridor — the Wankhede Stadium and Brabourne Stadium in south Mumbai, the Dr. D.Y. Patil Sports Stadium in Navi Mumbai and the Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium on the outskirts of Pune — the BCCI is considering hosting a handful of games at the Jio Stadium.
The stadium, developed in the Reliance Corporate Park, has been the training facility for Mumbai Indians. While it has all the modern amenities required to stage the games, the IPL authorities are likely to conduct a broadcast recce of the venue next week.
Depending on the nod from the broadcast team, the BCCI is likely to announce the detailed schedule by the month-end.
The IPL will revert to the format for the 2012 season, with the 10 teams to be divided in two groups of five teams each. Each team will face all the teams in its group and one from the other group twice. It will face the remaining four in the other group once, thus sticking to the 14-game format per team in the league stage.