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IPL T20 final to be held in Mumbai

Special Correspondent

Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)-promoted Indian Premier League T20 competition will open with a match between the Bangalore and Kolkata regions at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, on April 18.

The semifinal finals (May 30 & 31) and the final (June 1) will be played at Mumbai. In all, 10 matches will be held in Mumbai — seven home league matches apart from the semifinals and final.

IPL sources said that Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), which won the Mumbai region for $111.9 million for 10 years, had a major say in choosing the venue of the three knock-out matches. The franchise bid document had made it explicit that the highest bidder will have the prerogative to choose the venue for the final weekend matches of the league.

Moreover, the logistics aspect was also considered before Mumbai was chosen as the venue.

“It’s up to the eight franchisees to decide on the team name and they will announce it after receiving the approval from the IPL governing council. They have been given the guidelines document,” said Lalit Modi, Chairman and Commissioner, IPL and vice-president, BCCI.

The Brabourne Stadium, Cricket Club of India (CCI), is almost certain to be the venue for all the three knock-out games, but there’s a possibility of one of the semifinals being held at the D. Y. Patil Stadium at Navi Mumbai.

The IPL is also likely to rescind the two-year cooling-off period that prevented a cricketer from playing in the league for two years after his retirement from international cricket.

“The BCCI today gave the IPL the mandate to withdraw the two-year cooling time. It’s up to me and the governing council to take the next course of action,” said Modi.

First meeting

The eight franchisees and the other IPL partners had their first meeting at the Hilton Towers here on Friday. “Today, we informed the franchisees the complete operational aspects of the competition, including the branding aspect. Ogilvy and Mather and Mindshare presented the media campaigns they are going to run so that the franchisees can integrate their media campaigns with them.

“SONY-WSG, the official global broadcaster, made a presentation on the quality of pictures they will telecast and their marketing strategy. More than a hundred questions were asked by the franchisees, it was a good interaction with them.

“They were also told that Ticketpro will deal with the ticketing part of the IPL. The public can choose their seat numbers and buy tickets online and from their mobile phones for any of the matches. In Saturday’s meeting, the franchisees will be informed about the player-pool available,” added Modi.Seven or eight ICC Panel umpires, along with 16 Indian umpires, will officiate in the competition.

“We have finalised the umpires and match referee panel. It will be a mix of ICC and Indian officials. The ICC anti-corruption and security and anti-doping arrangements have all been finalised,” said Modi.

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