New Delhi: Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders will play all their Indian Premier League home matches at the Eden Gardens despite West Bengal going into polls during all seven phases of general elections.
The BCCI on Tuesday released the full schedule of the round robin league matches starting March 23 till May 5. As usual, there will be a total 56 matches that will be played during the six-week tourney. Among the round robin matches there are 12 afternoon starts (4 pm matches) on the weekends. The IPL operations team has ensured that no team plays their home matches at the alternate venues as the general elections will be held in seven phases from April 12 to May 19. Even Kings XI Punjab, who had played a few of their home matches in Indore during earlier editions, will play all their matches in Mohali.
“The biggest challenge was to ensure that KKR gets to play all their matches at the Eden Gardens as West Bengal is the only state which is going to polls n all seven dates.
However with Calcutta and adjoining areas going to polls on May 19, we have been able to sort the issues with help of the government and local police authorities,” a senior BCCI official said. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) CEO Venky Mysore on Tuesday hailed the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) full schedule, terming the fact that all eight teams will be playing their seven home matches at their respective venues despite 2019 being an election year, a “miracle”.
Mysore thanked the Kolkata Police for their support, saying despite West Bengal having elections in all seven phases, they always assured KKR that they will do all they can to ensure the Dinesh Karthik-led side get to play in front of their own fans.”The final schedule has just come out and I think a big thanks to IPL and the team there for putting the schedule out on an election year.” (PTI)
