IPL 2018: Franchises oppose governing council's decision to change match timings

IPL governing council's decision to alter the timings of both the afternoon and evening matches hasn't gone down well with the eight franchises and if reports are to be believed, they have made their objection know to the BCCI. The governing council had earlier accepted the official broadcasters, Star India's request to postpone the afternoon matches to 5.30 pm and prepone the evening matches to 7 pm.

When BCCI formally contacted the franchises, they unanimously suggested the Indian cricket governing body to go ahead with the same timings as that of the last 10 editions - afternoon matches at 4 pm and evening matches at 8 pm.

“There will be no problem on days with just a single match but there will be a big one when there are doubleheaders. They won’t get the complete three-hour quota and instead will have to share it with two matches. The overlap will result in one-and-a-half hours of each IPL match losing out on viewers,” a franchise official said as reported by The Indian Express.

The new timings would mean that the evening matches will commence before the afternoon matches have reached their conclusion. As a result of which, the viewers won't be able to enjoy both the matches on a double-header day, resulting in a loss of viewership for the franchises.

IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla explained that the governing council will soon discuss the matter and take a final call on it.

The 2018 IPL is slated to begin on 6th April 2018 with an opening ceremony in Mumbai and the first match of the season will be played the next day, 7th April, at the same venue. The final of the annual extravaganza will be played on 27th May, also in Mumbai.