Reports: IPL 2019 Schedule announcement postponed further

What's the story?

Cricket enthusiasts had been eagerly waiting for the IPL fixtures to be released on Monday, 4th February 2019. However, they will have to wait for some more time as the fixture announcements have been delayed further - by a week.

In case you didn’t know…

As per reports, the IPL fixtures were supposed to be out on February 4. With the General Elections scheduled to be held in the month of April and May, making the fixtures were always going to be a difficult task for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and IPL organizers.

The cricket fans will have to be more patient as there has been another setback in making the schedule due to the Lok Sabha elections.

The General Elections have clashed with the IPL on two occasions before. As a result of the elections in 2009, the entire IPL was played in South Africa. Meanwhile, when the situation occurred in 2014, the part of the Premier T20 league had to be played in the UAE.

The heart of the matter

The Election Commission of India is yet to announce the General Elections schedule. This, in turn, has resulted in the untimely postponement of the IPL schedule as well.

The Mumbai Mirror quoted a BCCI official:

“We’re working closely with the Election Commission and all the authorities concerned and hopefully it will be out in a week.”

The BCCI wants to ensure that the entire tournament takes place in India and is having to make adjustments accordingly. In fact, it will be the first time in the 12-year history of the mega-cricket event that both the General Elections and the entire tournament will take place in India.

What's Next

As per reports from The Mumbai Mirror, The BCCI is expected to release the schedule in about a week from now. Although the fixtures might be released soon, the BCCI has also stated that minor changes might have to be made to it by cause of the elections.

The start date of the Indian Premier League, however, has already been declared as March 23, 2019.

The schedule is set to be tight with the 2019 Cricket World Cup slated to kickstart on May 30.