IPL 2018 : Franchise Captains Of 6 Teams Will Not Attend Opening Ceremony
The Board For Cricket Control in India (BCCI), has decided to only have two captains be present at the opening ceremony of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on April 7.
The first match will be between defending champions Mumbai Indians and returning contenders Chennai Super Kings. Their respective captains, Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni will the only captains present in the ceremony. Rest, have to shoot a special video on April 6 and leave for their respective cities.
The confusion happened because senior Indian Premier League officials didn’t consider the logistical aspect of four other franchises who have matches next day.
Till last year, the convention was to have an opening ceremony a day before the first match, which captains would attend and sign the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ pledge.
Kings XI Punjab host Delhi Daredevils for a 4 PM match and Kolkata Knight Riders take on Royal Challengers Bangalore at 8 PM on April 8. Logistically, for captains of these four teams to be present at the opening ceremony would not be possible and rather tiresome for Ravichandran Ashwin (KXIP) and Gautam Gambhir (DD).
“Sample this. If Ashwin and Gambhir would have attended the opening ceremony, they could only board a 9 pm flight from Mumbai to Delhi as there are no late evening flights from Mumbai to Chandigarh. Now from Delhi, they can’t take a flight to Chandigarh on Sunday morning because the airport would remain closed. So either they travel by car during the night, which is a dangerous proposition or in the morning of the match to play at 4 pm. The less said, the better it is,” a BCCI senior official fumed.
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