First leg of IPL 7 to be hosted by UAE

NEW DELHI: The first part of the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League will be played from April 16 to April 30, 2014 in UAE, with the final set to be held in India on June 1.

Second half of the IPL to be held in Bangladesh or India from May 1 to 12, while the final leg is to be held in India from May 13.

If the Union government does not give permission, then second leg of IPL 7 will be held in Bangladesh from May 1, 2014 to May 12, 2014.

The first 16 matches will be played across three venues – Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah in the UAE.

BCCI will also request government to allow matches in states where polling is completed by May 1.

With the dates of the general elections finalised, IPL chairman Ranjib Biswal had last week said 60 to 70 per cent matches in the seventh edition of the Twenty20 tournament will be held in India.

The decision to host “bulk of the matches” in India was taken after a meeting of BCCI bigwigs, including its president N Srinivasan, senior vice-president Rajeev Shukla, secretary Sanjay Patel, Biswal and IPL CEO Sundar Raman.

Biswal insisted that since IPL is a domestic event, their main objective is to conduct majority of the matches in India.