The 2026 edition of the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) will be played from March 26 to May 31 in India. According to a report in Cricbuzz on Monday (December 15), the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has informed the franchise owners about the timeline of the 19th edition of the world’s richest franchise cricket league during the meeting in Abu Dhabi on the eve of the IPL 2026 auction.
However, there is no clarity if the season’s opener and final will be played at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
In the IPL, the opening match as well as the summit clash is played at the home ground of the defending champions, but after more than 10 people were killed in a stampede during RCB’s IPL 2025 title win celebrations, no matches
have been played at M Chinnaswamy Stadium. There is no official confirmation that the venue will host RCB’s matches of IPL 2026.
“The dates for IPL Season 19 were disclosed by Hemang Amin, the league’s CEO, during a briefing ahead of Tuesday’s auction. Traditionally, the opening match is staged in the city of the defending champions, but the availability of the Chinnaswamy Stadium remains uncertain. While the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) has received a conditional clearance from the state government to host IPL games at the venue, it is subject to meeting stipulated safety and security requirements,” the Cricbuzz report read.
369 players to be auctioned
A total of 369 players will go under the hammer during the IPL 2026 auction in Abu Dhabi on December 16. The BCCI announced the list of 350 players last week and according to Cricbuzz 19 players more have been added to the list.
The new players includes Tripura’s Mani Shankar Mura Singh, Malaysia’s Virandeep Singh, Chama Milind of Hyderabad, KL Shrijith of Karnataka, Eathan Bosch of South Africa, Australian all-rounder Chris Green, former RCB star Swastik Chikara, Uttarakhand’s Rahul Raj Namala, Jharkhand batter Virat Singh, Madhya Pradesh’s Tripuresh Singh, Kyle Verreynne of South Africa, Blessing Muzarabani of Zimbabwe, Ben Sears of New Zealand, Rajesh Mohanty and Swastik Samal from Odisha, Saransh Jain from Madhya Pradesh, Sooraj Sangaraju of Andhra Pradesh and Tanmay Agarwal of Hyderabad.
