IPL 2022 to be held in India without crowd: BCCI sources

Mumbai: The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season will be held in India, top sources in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said. Sources in the know of developments confirmed that if the Covid-19 subsides in the country, then the board will go ahead with hosting the IPL 2022 in India.

"IPL 2022 will be held in India and the tournament will be staged without crowds in attendance. Likely venues for IPL 2022 are Wankhede Stadium, Cricket Club of India (CCI), DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai and if needed, we can look at Pune as well," the sources said.

Meanwhile, IPL Governing Council chairman Brijesh Patel said that IPL 2022 is tentatively set to start from March 27. A source, which attended the meeting on Saturday, said the board is hopeful of having IPL 2022 played a home.

The availability of multiple grounds in Mumbai and Pune will make it easier as the new season will have 10 teams, including 2 new teams -- one from Ahmedabad and the other from Lucknow, the sources said. The IPL player registration closed on January 20 and a total of 1,214 players (896 Indian and 318 overseas) have signed up to be part of the 2022 player auction.

The two-day mega auction will see 10 teams bidding for some of the finest talents in world cricket. The players' list incorporates 270 capped, 903 uncapped, and 41 Associate players. The detailed list is as follows: Capped Indian (61 players), Capped International (209 players), Associate (41 players), Uncapped Indians who were a part of previous IPL seasons (143 players), Uncapped International who were a part of previous IPL seasons (6 players), Uncapped Indians (692 players), and Uncapped Internationals (62 players). The IPL auction is set to be held on February 12 and 13 in Bengaluru.