2018 IPL: Tournament to have only one opening ceremony

What's the story?

The eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), in 2018, will feature only a single opening ceremony, unlike the previous season in which a ceremony was conducted in each of the eight home venues of the teams. The BCCI have allotted a budget of INR 50 crore, which has been augmented from the INR 30 crore from the previous edition, an amount which was divided among the eight teams.

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The opening ceremony for the 2018 event will be held on April 6, a day before the tournament starts in Mumbai. Defending champions Mumbai Indians will be playing the first game, though their opponents have not yet been finalised.

The heart of the matter

For the last IPL season, the IPL Governing Council (GC) had allotted INR 3.5 crore for each of the eight opening ceremonies at the different home grounds. However, the budget has now been hiked to INR 50 crore for the only function to be conducted before the start of this season, something which has been done to attract international attention.

“The IPL GC has taken decision to increase the IPL budget to 50 crore. The BCCI felt in order to make it grand we will be needing stars from around the world. And if you want world stars to perform then you need the necessary budget. The Board has decided to do away with having an opening ceremony in each of the eight venues and have a grand event this time around,” sources in the BCCI told The Indian Express.

What's next?

The first match of the 2018 edition, on April 7, will be held at the Wankhede Stadium while the final, on May 27, will also be played at the same venue. But before that, the IPL auctions will be taking place on January 27 and 28 in Bangalore.