IPL 2023: Format, venues, changes, streaming details, and more
The 16th Indian Premier League (IPL) edition will be underway on March 31 when reigning champions Gujarat Titans take on four-time champions Chennai Super Kings in Ahmedabad. India's flagship T20 tournament started back in 2008 and has gone through several changes over the years. The upcoming season will witness the return of home and away format. Here are further details about the tournament.
The return of home and away format
As mentioned, IPL 2023 will return to the usual home-away format after three years. Due to the pandemic, the 2020 IPL was hosted behind closed doors in the UAE. In 2021, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Chennai hosted the first half before it shifted to the UAE due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Last season, the tournament was organized in Mumbai and Pune across four venues.
Telecast and live-streaming details
Disney Star retained its Indian sub-continent television rights for IPL 2023 for a hefty fee of Rs 23,575 crores. Hence, the matches will be aired live on the Star Sports Network in different languages such as Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Malayalam, and Kannada. Meanwhile, Viacom18 bought the digital rights for Rs 23,578. JioCinema will live-stream IPL 2023 (free) in 4k resolution.
A look at the league format
Each team will play 14 games in total in the league phase, seven at home and seven away from home. The 10 teams are divided into two groups of five each. They will play the other four teams in their group twice (one home and one away). They will face four teams in the other group once and the remaining team twice.
The Impact Player rule
IPL 2023 will see the introduction of the Impact Player rule. The teams will name four substitute players apart from their main starting line-up. Later at any point in time, they can use these subs as their 'Impact Player'. A team can make only one substitution change in a particular match. The outgoing player won't take any further part in the contest.
Declaration of Playing XI after the toss
Generally, franchise captains exchange their teamsheets before they carry on with the toss as the playing XIs are preplanned. But now, captains can wait for the outcome of the toss and then accordingly decide their playing line-ups. According to IPL authorities, this change will help the teams plan better for the 'Impact Player' rule. SAT20 League became the first tournament to introduce this rule.
Teams can review wide and no-ball calls
Teams can now use the Decision Review System (DRS) to review wide and no-ball calls to minimize the errors made by the on-field umpires. They can also review any illegal movement from a wicket-keeper or fielder resulting in a dead ball and five penalty runs.
A look at the 12 venues
List of 12 venues which will host IPL 2023: Wankhede Stadium, Eden Gardens, Narendra Modi Stadium, Arun Jaitley Stadium, M Chinnaswamy Stadium, MA Chidambaram Stadium (Chepauk), Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium (Dharamsala).
Here are the key dates
IPL 2023 will start on March 31, and the league stage will run till May 21. The afternoon matches will start at 3:30 PM on days of double-headers, while the evening games will begin at 7:30 PM. A total of 70 league-stage matches will be played across 52 days in 12 different venues. The final will be played on May 28 in Ahmedabad.
