Background
The IPL matches in Chennai were threatened due to Kaveri River water dispute protests.[2] Madras high court issued a notice to BCCI after a PIL was filed seeking stay on IPL.[3]
This would be the first season featuring DRS.[4] IPL Fanpark,a initiative where matches are hosted in stadium on a large screen has been planned to be held across 36 cities in 19 states across the India.[5] This season also will introduce Mid-season transfers. The Transfer window will be a short five-day transfer window applicable only for uncapped players who have played not more than two matches at the halfway mark of the tournament.[6]
Format
Eight teams are scheduled to play in 2018. The tournament involves each team playing every other team twice in a home-and-away, double round-robin format. At the conclusion of the double round-robin league, the top four teams on the basis of aggregate points qualify for the playoffs. In this stage, the top two teams compete with each other (in a match titled "Qualifier 1"), as do the remaining two teams (in a match titled "Eliminator"). While the winner of Qualifier 1 directly qualifies for the final match, the losing team gets another chance to qualify for the final match by playing the winning team of the Eliminator match; this match is titled Qualifier 2. The winner of this subsequent Qualifier 2 match moves onto the final match. The team that wins the final match is crowned the Indian Premier League winners.The schedule for the tournament was published on 14 February 2018.[7]
Broadcast
Star Sports won the global media rights at ₹16,347.5 crore ($2.55 billion) for five years starting from 2018.[1] In India, the tournament will be broadcast on Star Network channels in six languages(English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bengali).[8] For the first time, IPL would also be broadcast on public broadcaster Doordarshan.[9] The TV rights for rest of the world were won by Willow TV for US and Canada, Sky Sports for UK, Fox Sports for Australia, Sky Sport for New Zealand, SuperSport for sub Saharan Africa, beIN Sports for Middle-East and North America, Flow TV for Caribbean, Geo Super for Pakistan, Channel 9 for Bangladesh and Lemar TV for Afghanistan.[8] The radio rights were won by Cricket Radio globally(except Indian subcontinent), 89.1 Radio 4 FM and Gold 101.3 FM for US and Talksport for UK.[8] Star's digital platform Hotstar held the digital rights for India, US and Canada. The digital rights for rest of the world were won by Sky Sports for UK, Fox Sports for Australia, Sky Sport for New Zealand, SuperSport for sub Saharan Africa, beIN Sports for Middle-East and North America, Flow TV for Caribbean, Geo Super for Pakistan, Channel 9 for Bangladesh and YuppTV for Australia, Europe, SE Asia & South America.[8] Star India also announced its plan to broadcast IPL in Virtual Reality.[10]
Venues
Ten venues were selected to host the matches. The opening match and the final will be played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The venues for two playoffs were not announced initially due to the norm of allotting the Eliminator and second qualifier to the home stadium of last season's runner-up, and the fact that the 2017 runner-up, Rising Pune Supergiant were no longer a part of the IPL. [11]. Later, both playoffs were allotted to Pune.[12] Except for Kings XI Punjab, all other teams will play their home games at their traditional home venues. Kings XI were scheduled to play three of their home games in Indore and the other four games in Mohali.[7] But later schedule was changed due to logistical issues owing to the closure of Chandigarh Airport and hence would play three of their home games in Mohali and the other four games in Indore making exception to the rule of playing at least four home matches at their designated home venue.[13].
