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Now only a few matches and days are left for the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 to reach its conclusion. The final of this tournament will be played on March 8 and the champion will be decided. But even after the World Cup, the action and excitement of T20 cricket will continue because the 19th season of IPL will start at the end of March, for which BCCI has already started preparations. However, BCCI has suddenly decided to delay the start of the tournament by 2 days and now this tournament will start on March 28 instead of March 26.

During the players auction held in Abu Dhabi in December 2025, BCCI had announced that the new season will start from March 26. But about 30 days before that, the board has now decided to postpone it by 2 days and start it from March 28. However, there is no change in the date of the final and it will be played on May 31 only. According to the report of ESPN-Cricinfo, there will be a meeting of the IPL Governing Council next week, in which this decision and the entire schedule of the tournament will be formally approved.

BCCI has not yet released the complete schedule of the tournament and one of the reasons for this is believed to be the assembly elections to be held in 4 states. General elections are to be held in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and Kerala in the next few months, the dates of which have not been announced yet. Of these, IPL matches are to be played in Tamil Nadu (Chennai), West Bengal (Kolkata) and Assam (Guwahati). It has been told in the report that the Indian Board is waiting for the announcement of the Election Commission, due to which the schedule of IPL 2026 has not been released.

However, it is believed that all the franchises are pressurizing the board to release the schedule, so that they can organize their preparations accordingly. In such a situation, there is a possibility that BCCI may release the schedule of the first few matches of the tournament by next week and then announce the rest of the schedule after the election dates are announced.

Not only this, the Governing Council also has to decide where the first match of the tournament will be played. As per tradition, the champion team of the previous season plays the first match and it is played in its home ground. But the situation is not yet clear regarding the return of IPL at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, the home ground of last season's champion Royal Challengers Bangalore. Last year, during the celebrations after RCB's victory, there was a stampede outside the stadium, in which several deaths occurred. Due to this, cricket is currently banned in this stadium.