Mumbai Indians one of the franchises that differed with early start of second games in IPL

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has refused to entertain the request of the official broadcaster Star Sports to kick off the night games of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) at 7 pm. Star Sports, the tournament’s broadcaster, had made a similar proposal last year as well. Recently, the Committee of Administrators (CoA) that runs the BCCI also confirmed that the timing of the second match of the day which starts at 8 pm will not be changed for election purpose.

There was speculation that the organisers could change the timings of the second games owing to their clashes with the polls. Among the franchises that objected to the idea of changing the match timings was Mumbai Indians (MI), the winners of the 2013, 2015 and 2017 editions, according to Mumbai Mirror.

Security of returning spectators was raised by the broadcaster

The reasons why Star wanted to change the timings is an early start will see the games covering the primetime while another is the security as an early finish will enable the spectators to return home safely after the games’ conclusion. The broadcaster said the state of night transportation in many of the hosting cities of the IPL maybe not as good.

However, transportation in Mumbai is considered to be among the best and the security factor was something that did not convince the organisers of games of the IPL in the Maximum City.

According to the Mirror, a few franchises wrote to the BCCI to continue with the old timings and the latter took cognizance of their request.

The IPL kicks off on March 23 in Chennai with a game between defenders Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Till now, the fixture of the tournament for the first two weeks (till April 5) has been revealed as the BCCI was waiting for the Election Commission to come up with the schedule of the general elections. With the elections now set to start on April 11, the BCCI has a challenging task in hand to sort out the rest of the IPL fixture.

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