The inaugural match of Indian Premier League(IPL) will be held at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore on April 18th 2008 and the tournament will conclude on June 1st 2008 with final match at Mumbai.

As we all know that, the Indian summer will be at its peak in April-June and we hardly have a cricket tournament in India during this time. The only major tournament conducted during this period in India was Independence Cup in 1997, which had got a lot criticism as the matches were conducted in conditions in which temperature was above 40 degree celsius.

The conditions will be almost the same for IPL as well … Will the players be able perform at their best in these conditions? Will the people come out of their home to watch matches in the stadium ? Also, in summer there will be major power cuts through out India, majority of TV viewers might be denied of uninterrupted match telecast. In Bangalore, it rains invariably in the evenings during this season.

So the timing of the league is a major concern … one can expect many obstacles for the tournament to meet the expected revenue. Since ICC has clearly mentioned that there won’t be a window for IPL in international calender, the recalendarization looks unlikely from next year.

But there is a silver lining, since Twenty20 matches are of shorter duration(about 3 hours), the matches can start after 7 pm when it will be relatively cold or who knows by next year BCCI might come up with an idea of constructing fully air conditioned indoor cricket stadiums. Rain or shine the match must go on !