IPL 2024: Teams Will Not Get Home Advantage
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is one of the most watched and reputed T20 Leagues in cricket. So, the IPL 2024 Auction was completed on 19th December in Dubai and is most likely in the plans for an early start due to the scheduled T20 World Cup 2024 in June.
Especially the impact and performance in the first half of IPL 2024 will play a huge role in the selection of Indian players for the upcoming T20 World Cup. Also, the tournament will end by mid-May and might also feature more double headers due to the inclusion of 10 teams. And, there’s one more thing the “Caravan Model” could also be used for this season of IPL due to the General Elections in India.
How will the Caravan Model work if it is used in the IPL 2024 season?
In a Caravan Model, a lot of costs can be saved by spending less on Logistics and Hospitality services, also security can be enhanced and made sure that two big events can be scheduled simultaneously without many security-related concerns.
In IPL 2024 if the Caravan model is used then a similar kind of approach could be used by dividing the 74 league stage and playoff matches through a set.
Let’s understand with an example:
Chennai Super Kings were the Champions and Gujarat Titans were the runners-up of the last IPL 2023 season. So knockout matches could be divided into Ahmedabad and Chennai. There are 4 playoff matches consisting of Qualifier 1, Qualifier 2, Eliminator, and the Final. The final could be arranged in Chennai and the rest of the matches in Ahmedabad.
Now it comes to the remaining 70 matches, so earlier for IPL 2021 due to covid outbreak and bio bubble restrictions BCCI introduced the Caravan Model for the 56 matches by dividing them into a set of 20, 16, and 20 in 6 cities. Now if we look at 70, it could be divided into a set of 20, 15, 20, and 15 within 8 cities.
The first 20 matches could be played in Jaipur and Mumbai, and also Mumbai Indians will play all their matches in Jaipur which are in the first set and Rajasthan Royals will be playing all the matches in Mumbai so that home advantage could be removed as well.
Similarly, the second set of 15 matches could be held in Bangalore and Hyderabad. So, RCB will play their games in Hyderabad and SRH will play in Bangalore.
The third set of 20 matches could be held in Kolkata and Lucknow. And, the last set of 15 matches could be played in Punjab and Delhi.
So this is how a Caravan technique could be used for conducting the IPL 2024 season. If only a few dates of IPL 2024 coincide with the elections then the IPL event would be conducted by a regular approach only.
