The Indian Premier League (IPL) opening ceremony is quite a famous thing. But due to it’s non-popularity amongst fans the Indian cricket board is about to scrap the same from next edition.
Waste of money
Every year, the opening ceremony of the league shows artists from across the globe performing and giving a kickass start to the tournament. But now in a major development, the BCCI has reportedly decided to remove that programme from agenda which had previously cost them around Rs 30 crore.
Although a number of Bollywood celebrities and international stars, like Katy Perry, Akon and Pit Bull have performed at IPL opening ceremonies, they have failed to catch the attention of cricket fans in general. So according to a leading media network’s reportage, the board thinks these ceremonies were a waste of money as the cricket fans didn’t seem to be interested and the performers had to be paid a lot. “They are a waste of money. Fans don’t seem to be interested, and the performers have to be paid a lot.” a BCCI official has been quoted by the Indian Express.
New committee to manage all
In the IPL Governing Council meeting, this was one of the key talking points. The IPL opening ceremony of 2019 edition was scrapped to honour those who had lost their lives in the Pulwama terror attack. But now the BCCI has taken a final call to scrap the ceremony once and for all.
The auction for IPL 2020 is set to take place on December 19 in Kolkata. Most certainly preparations for the biggest T20 league have already started. This time the league is likely to start from April 1 and could end by May 30. After taking over the reign, this will be the first time that the new committee will manage the operations related to the IPL. So it will be interesting to notice whether the board keeps a 15-day window between the end of the 13th IPL and India’s next assignment.
