IPL 2022 Opening Ceremony: The 15th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is going to start from today i.e. 26 March. Defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and last time runners-up Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will face each other in the first match of the league. The match will be played from 07.30 pm at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. No opening ceremony will be held before the match. This will be the fourth year in a row that there will be no IPL opening ceremony. The last opening ceremony in IPL was held in 2018. But after that there has been no opening ceremony since 2019. The BCCI will honor the Tokyo Olympians before the match instead of the opening ceremony.
As reported by InsideSports, before the match between Kolkata and Chennai, Tokyo will honor the players participating in the Olympics. Of these, gold medalist Neeraj Chopra will be honored by giving one crore rupees. Apart from Neeraj, Bajrang Punia, Ravi Dahiya, Lovlina will be honored at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Majority of the members of men’s and women’s hockey teams are also expected to participate during the programme. The Indian Olympic contingent won six medals at the Tokyo Olympics last year.
Why is the opening ceremony not happening?
The BCCI has not been organizing the IPL Opening Ceremony since the Pulwama attack in February 2019. 40 soldiers were martyred in the Pulwama attack and the opening ceremony of IPL was canceled in honor of these martyrs. After this the opening ceremony could not be held in 2020 and 2021 due to Corona. Now the Opening Ceremony will not be held even in 2022.