UAE to host second-half of the IPL 2024?: Reports said

IPL 2024 is set to kick off on March 22nd, 2024, but so far only 21 IPL matches have been scheduled, as the world’s largest democracy has the general elections in the upcoming months, whose complete schedule is to be announced by the Election Commission of India on March 16, 2024. According to reports coming out of the Times of India, some senior officials of BBCI are in Dubai right now to discuss the potential shift of the IPL venue to the middle eastern country for the second half.

“The Election Commission of India will announce the election schedule on Saturday at 3 pm. After that, the BCCI will decide whether IPL matches should be moved to Dubai. Currently, a few top BCCI officials are in Dubai to explore the possibility of organizing the second half of the IPL in Dubai,”
Sources told TOI

If the election schedule hinders the regular conduct of the tournament, then BCCI will shift the rest of the tournament matches to the UAE, and if that happens, then it will be the fourth time in a decade that the UAE will be hosting some part of the IPL. During 2014, the UAE hosted the IPL for the first half due to the general elections. After that, the entire 2020 edition of the IPL was hosted by the UAE due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. The first half of the IPL was played in India, but due to the rise of COVID-19 cases in India, the second half was again conducted in the UAE.

Interestingly, the inaugural season of the IPL, which was in 2008, was entirely hosted by South Africa due to the same reason as general elections. As per the IPL 2024 schedule, the first match of the season is going to happen between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore at M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.