New Delhi, 27 February. The most favorite sports festival of Indian cricket fans i.e. Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 will start from March 28 this year. The final of the 19th edition of the competition, sponsored by the Tata Group, is scheduled for May 31. This information has been revealed in a report by global cricket website ESPNcricinfo on Friday.
It is noteworthy that after the IPL 2026 auction in December last year, it was revealed that the tournament will start from March 26. The report states that the IPL has internally changed the start date by two days from the initially scheduled date. However, the entire program has not been finalized yet.
The venue of RCB’s inaugural match has not been decided yet
The IPL Governing Council will meet next week to finalize the entire schedule and the venue of the opening match with defending champions Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Last year, 11 people were killed in a stampede at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium during the celebrations of RCB’s title win. As a result, Chinnaswamy Stadium was deemed unfit to host major events.
However, the Karnataka government earlier this month gave approval to Chinnaswamy Stadium to host the game. Although there have been talks between RCB officials and the Karnataka State Cricket Association to bring back IPL games at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in 2026, nothing has been finalized as of now. RCB has also shortlisted Navi Mumbai, Raipur and Pune as alternate venues for the home matches of IPL 2026.
This is why IPL 2026 matches have not been announced yet
It is a norm in IPL that the winning team will play the first match in the coming season. Since the formation of IPL in 2008, there have been four occasions when assembly elections were held in the country or in a state – 2009, 2014, 2019 and 2024. Of these, the entire 2009 tournament was shifted to South Africa, the remaining three times the schedule was announced in two parts.
It is understood that the delay in announcing the IPL 2026 schedule is due to the assembly elections in Assam, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has not yet announced the election dates in these three states, so it is understood that the IPL Governing Council is waiting for the election dates before announcing the matches.
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