In the wake of the rising COVID-19 cases, a, BCCI could hold the entire IPL 2022 in Mumbai across three stadiums - Wankhede, Brabourne and DY Patil Stadium. There are talks of starting the league in late March to reduce to the number of double-headers. However, the BCCI would want 10 centres in India to make the tournament more interesting and that will remain the priority. The Covid-19 situation in 2021 had forced the BCCI to suspend the IPL midway and the remainder of the games were shifted to UAE.
IPL 2022 being held in UAE as an alternative has not been in the plans yet while there could be an early start to the edition. The reason behind considering advancing the tournament is to reduce the number of doubleheaders. “The BCCI is also preparing a Plan B for the league. With the growing number of Covid-19 cases in the country, there may be a possibility that the BCCI will utilise only Mumbai as an IPL centre. At this stage, two options are on the table – 10 centres or just three centres (the Wankhede, CCI and DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai).“Going back to UAE has not yet been thought of by the Board officials as yet. However, the option of advancing the starting date by week — from April 2 to March 25 – is also being considered, the purpose of it being to have fewer double-headers and day games,” a report in Cricbuzz read.
