CHENNAI: The final of the 2024 Indian Premier League will be played at Chennai's MA Chidambaram Stadium on May 26, as the BCCI announced the schedule for the remainder of the tournament on Monday.
Qualifier 2 will also be played in Chennai on May 24, while Qualifier 1 and Eliminator will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, on May 21 and 22.
The entire tournament will be played in the country despite the general elections, which will be held across seven phases from April 19 until June 1.
The home and away format has been retained, with the final league fixture set to be played between the Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders on May 19 in Guwahati. As has been the case in the past, Guwahati will host a couple of home games for the Rajasthan Royals, and Dharamshala will host two matches for the Punjab Kings.
Chennai Super Kings’ third home game will be on April 8 against KKR before they go on the road. Only after the first phase of the general elections, which will be held in Tamil Nadu on April 19, will CSK come back to the MA Chidambaram Stadium on April 23 to take on the Lucknow Super Giants. Similarly, Bengaluru will host only one game after May 12, as Karnataka will go to polls in four phases (May 13, 20, 25 and June 1).
Lucknow, meanwhile, will host the Chennai Super Kings on April 19, the same day when Uttar Pradesh holds the first phase of polls.
The other interesting thing is that the Indian contingent will have five days before the 2024 T20 World Cup begins in the United States.
India will play their first game in New York on June 5, eight days after the IPL final. They will not have much time to adapt and recuperate to the conditions in New York, where they have never played before.