Delhi Capitals will play their first two IPL 2024 home matches in Visakhapatnam, find out why

The schedule for the much-awaited 2024 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is out but only for the first 17 days. This is a special year as India is set to have their general elections this year which will coincide with IPL 2024, therefore security will be diverted to care of the free and fair elections which is the backbone of Indian democracy.

Thus, to conduct a mega event such as the IPL requires meticulous planning and the rest of the schedule of the IPL will be announced once the dates of the elections are out which will most probably be announced by the Election Commission of India in the 2nd or 3rd week of March.

The format of the IPL will be a similar home and away format but it was recently announced that the Delhi Capitals will be playing their first two home matches in ACA-VDCA Stadium in Visakhapatnam instead of the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.

This decision is taken because the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi will be holding 11 matches of the WPL which will start from 23rd February including the eliminators and the finals. The IPL will take place just after the WPL because of which it will be very difficult to maintain quality playing conditions for the IPL in such a short period.

Delhi Capital’s official announcement of the venue swap

To counter the issue the first two home matches of the Delhi Capitals have been moved away to Visakhapatnam. The co-owner of the Delhi Capitals made the news public to their fans on social media with a tweet.

The Indian Cricket Board also issued an official statement on this matter. The statement as quoted by the Indian Cricket Board stated, “Having chosen to play their first two home matches in Visakhapatnam, the Delhi Capitals will first host the Chennai Super Kings on Sunday, 31st March in the port city and will then face the Kolkata Knight Riders at the same venue on Wednesday, 3rd April.”

IPL 2024 is set to kick off on March 22 and the first match will be a southern derby between arch-rivals Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai. This year’s IPL will be important as it is followed by the T20 World Cup and the IPL performance will play an important role in the selection of squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup.