First Phase IPL 7 Schedule Released: First Match on April 16 in UAE

IPL 7

First Phase IPL 7 Schedule Released: First Match on April 16 in UAE

Governing body of IPL announced the first schedule of IPL 7. Twenty matches will be played in UAE in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. The second and third phase schedule, in which 40 matches will be played, will be released soon. The first match is between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders on April 16.

Chennai: First phase schedule of IPL 7 is released by the governing body. Twenty matches will be played in UAE. IPL 7 begins with a match between defending champion Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders on April 16. The phase ends on April 30 with a match between Mumbai and Sun risers Hyderabad on April 30.

First Phase of IPL 7 matches will be played in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah. BCCI decided to hold the matches in UAE as India is going for general elections. Bangladesh is selected for the second phase of matches but it is likely that these matches will be held in India. BCCI informed that state governments of India are willing to hold the matches after the completion of elections in their states. It is now expected that second phase of IPL will begin in the first week of May itself in India. The schedule of remaining forty matches will be released soon, informed the governing body. In the first phase of IPL 7, each team will play 5 matches.

Opening ceremony of IPL 7 will be held in Abu Dhabi on April 15. Seven matches will be played in Abu Dhabi and six matches in Sharjah, BCCI was a little bit worried over hold the matches in Sharjah keeping in view the match fixing experiences but UAE government assured to take care of all such issues and thus BCCI decided to hold the matches there.

One match will be played daily but two matches will be held in the weekends that are Friday, Saturday and Sunday. First match will begin at 4.00 pm IST, second match begins at 8.00 pm IST. During week days, the match begins at 8.00 pm IST. The governing council will announced the schedule of 40 matches that will be played in the second and third phases. This is the second time that IPL is played outside India. The second season of IPL was also held in South Africa in 2009 due to general elections in India.