On Monday, the Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council had a meeting where they discussed various topics like the timing of the IPL games, a number of five double-headers and the date and venue of the final of the cash-rich league was discussed. Apart from this, they have also discussed conducting a one-off all-star charity match will precede the opening game of the tournament and will be played three days ahead of the season opener.
If the recent reports are considered, the teams are likely to be formed by combining cricketers from the franchises located in the north and east of India: Delhi Capitals, Kings XI Punjab, Rajasthan Royals, and Kolkata Knight Riders- and the four teams in the south and west: Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
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According to reports in ESPNCricinfo, the idea of consulting the all-star match was coined by the current BCCI president, Sourav Ganguly and IPL governing council chairman Brijesh Patel, both of whom were present at the meeting.
So combining teh players mean that fans might be able to see the likes of Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, AB de Villiers, Shane Watson, Jasprit Bumrah, Lasith Malinga playing for the same team. Similarly from the other team consisting of cricketers from the north and east franchises, we might see the likes of Andre Russell, Rishabh Pant, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Shreyas Iyer, Pat Cummins, Eoin Morgan, Jofra Archer playing in the same team.
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However, the venue for the charity match is yet to be decided. One of the other key things that were discussed at the governing council meeting was the timings of the evening matches. Earlier, the franchises, as well as broadcasters, had requested the IPL GC to consider changing the time of the evening game from -8:00 PM to 07:30 PM. However, still the council decided to not to tamper the timings.
