The BCCI has decided that the six captains of IPL franchises barring Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, won't need to attend the opening ceremony scheduled on April 7.
All eight captains are expected do a special video shoot on April 6 and leave for their respective cities after the shoot.
Till last year, the protocol was to have an opening ceremony a day before the first match, which captains would attend and sign the 'Spirit of Cricket' pledge.
This year it was decided at the IPL Governing meeting that the opening ceremony would be held in Mumbai on April 7 before the first match between Mumbai Indians and a returning Chennai Super Kings side.
However, this season, the change in protocol comes in because senior IPL officials didn't realise that four other franchises have matches the next day.
On April 8, there is a double game with Delhi Daredevils taking on Kings XI Punjab in Mohali at 4:00 pm while RCB will meet KKR in Kolkata at 8:00 pm.
According to reports in TOI, this is what a senior BCCI official had to say
IPL team should have done their homework. They are calling Gautam Gambhir and Ravichandran Ashwin a day before an afternoon match. That's absolute lack of homework. Sample this. If Ashwin and Gambhir would have attended the opening ceremony, they could only board a 9:00 pm flight from Mumbai to Delhi as there are no late evening flights from Mumbai to Chandigarh. Now from Delhi, they can't take a flight to Chandigarh on Sunday morning because the airport would remain close. So either they travel by car during the night, which is a dangerous proposition or in the morning of the match to play at 4 pm. The less said, better it is."
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