IPL 2026: BCCI’s big announcement before the auction, know when the 19th season of IPL will start

IPL 2026 To Be Played From March 26 To May 31: The mini auction of IPL 2026 will take place today on December 16 in Abu Dhabi. In this auction, all the franchises will bid on selected players to strengthen their team. The start date of IPL has been announced before the action. The IPL 2026 match will be played from March 26 to May 31.

According to a report by Cricbuzz, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has informed all the franchises about this during the meeting held in Abu Dhabi before the mini-auction of IPL 2026. BCCI said that IPL 2026 will start from March 26. Its final will be played on 31st May. However, it is not clear whether the first match of the season and the final will be played at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru or not.

Will the tradition be broken this time?

As per IPL tradition, the first match and final match of the season is held at the home ground of the defending champion. But this time, M Chinnaswamy Stadium has been declared unfit for big events after more than 10 people died in the stampede during the victory parade after RCB won the title. In such a situation, it is not yet officially clear whether RCB will play its home matches at this venue in IPL 2026 or not.

Also read: IPL 2026 mega auction played big! Retain-release list of 10 teams is out, see how many crores are in the purse?

According to a report by Cricbuzz, the dates for IPL Season 19 (IPL 2026) were given by league CEO Hemang Amin during a briefing held ahead of the auction on Tuesday. The report said that as per tradition the first match should be played in the city of the defending champions, but the availability of the Chinnaswamy Stadium still remains uncertain. Although the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) has received conditional approval from the state government to organize IPL matches, the permission will be subject to meeting the prescribed safety and security standards.

369 players will be bid in the auction

Meanwhile, the IPL 2026 auction will be held in Abu Dhabi on December 16, with a total of 369 players going under the hammer. BCCI had released the list of 350 players last week, but according to Cricbuzz, 19 new players have been added to it.

Players included in the new list include Tripura’s Mani Shankar Mura Singh, Malaysia’s Virandeep Singh, Hyderabad’s Chama Milind, Karnataka’s KL Srijit, South Africa’s Ethan Bosch, Australian all-rounder Chris Green, former RCB player Swastik Chikara, Uttarakhand’s Rahul Raj Namla, Jharkhand batsman Virat Singh, Madhya Pradesh’s Tripuresh Singh, South Africa’s Kyle Warren, Zimbabwean fast bowler Blessing Muzarabani, New Zealand. K Ben Sears, Rajesh Mohanty and Swastik Samal. Apart from this, Saransh Jain from Odisha, Suraj Sangaraju from Andhra Pradesh and Tanmay Aggarwal from Hyderabad have also been included in the auction list.