After a four-year hiatus, the opening ceremony is set to return for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. With less than two weeks remaining for the 16th edition of IPL, there will be an opening ceremony hosted at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on March 31, ahead of the inaugural fixture between Chennai Super Kings and defending champions Gujarat Titans.
As per a report in Inside Sport, the opening ceremony will return after a four-year hiatus. BCCI are looking to mark the return of IPL’s home and away format with an opening ceremony, which could be hosted due to Covid-19 in the past seasons.
Due to Covid-19 restrictions in the country, BCCI had to ditch their tradition of hosting the opening ceremony however, since life has returned to normalcy, the opening ceremony could also be revived.
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The report adds that ahead of the inaugural IPL 2023 fixture, an opening ceremony of one hour is being planned by the BCCI. It must be noted that the apex cricket board had also hosted an opening ceremony for the inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2023 as well.
While the BCCI would be pushing to get many A-listers from Bollywood to perform in the opening ceremony, as has been the case throughout the illustrious history of the league, no big name has yet to be confirmed so far.
For the unversed, the IPL’s home and away format is returning for the first time since 2019 due to Covid restrictions. During the 2019 season also there was no opening ceremony hosted by BCCI due to their decision to pay solidarity and respect to the martyrs of the Pulwama attacks.
Unlike past seasons, despite the return of the home and away format, the ten teams of IPL will be divided into two groups. Group A will comprise of Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants, while Group B will feature Chennai Super Kings, Punjab Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Titans.
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Each team will play 7 home and away games respectively, facing teams from the same group twice, while a team from Group A will take on teams from Group B once.
In total, 70 matches will be played across 12 venues.
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