The Governing Council of the Indian Premier League on Wednesday set in motion the process of drawing up the schedule of the seventh edition of the tournament.
The GC was waiting for the Election Commission of India (ECI) to announce the dates of the 2014 General Elections, which would be held in nine phases from April 7 to May 12. The IPL had been tentatively scheduled from April 9 to June 3.
The GC would come out with a detailed schedule on Friday, with an effort to conduct a majority of the matches within the country. “We can do it but a lot will depend on how many matches we can organise outside India,” said a Board official involved in the process.
The option of shifting the IPL out of the country was forced after the central government refused to assure sufficient security if it was held alongside the elections.
The second edition of the event, in 2009, had to be shifted to South Africa due to the same reason, a move that did not go down well with the authorities in India.
Even though South Africa remains one of the destinations for the tournament this summer, the GC is keen to explore the possibility of organising the initial segment in Asia itself. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and United Arab Emirates have been identified as the best possible venues for the first phase.
“We have to look at the logistics and the financial aspect before we take a final decision. If we are forced to have more matches outside India then South Africa will be the obvious choice.
“But we will look at Bangladesh and Dubai as possible venues if the matches outside India are less in number,” the official noted.
The Board official confirmed that the decisive phase of the IPL would be held in India. “The General Elections are to be held in nine phases and we can look to have the final stages at venues which would be available,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Board's Disciplinary Committee, comprising N. Srinivasan, Rajeev Shukla and Shivlal Yadav gave Rajasthan Royals player Ajit Chandila a week's time to reply to the charges levelled against him of being involved in spot-fixing during the last edition of the IPL.
“The Disciplinary Committee heard Chandila’s defence of the charges against him. Chandila requested for additional time to submit his written reply to the charges levelled against him and the Disciplinary Committee decided to agree to the request,” the Board said in a press release.
