As the Indian Premier League turns 18, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will host special ceremonies across all the 13 venues to commemorate the coming of age of the world’s premier franchise tournament.
The celebration will kick off with a grand opening ceremony featuring Bollywood superstars and celebrities from the music industry at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on March 22. The festive fervour will continue throughout the season with each venue kickstarting its first match with a cultural programme, featuring prominent artists.
“We wanted to add more flavour to the tournament so that spectators from each and every venue can get a taste of the opening ceremony. For the cultural programmes in each venue, we are planning to create a line-up of national and local artists,” a well-placed source, aware of the development, told Sportstar.
Noted singer Shreya Ghosal and actress Disha Patani will be the key performers for the opening ceremony in Kolkata, which will be attended by Jay Shah, the chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC), along with other dignitaries.
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The Board is now in the ‘final stages of conversations’ with a few other noted artists for the other 12 events. “The idea is to have a varied pool of Bollywood artists performing for all the programmes, and with limited time in between the innings, two to three artists could be accommodated for these events,” the source said, adding that the line-up of artists and celebrities will be finalised by Wednesday.
“Since this is happening at such a scale for the first time, there are some logistical issues as well. So, the BCCI and State associations are working in tandem to ensure that the programmes are conducted smoothly without hampering the matches.”
Apart from the traditional venues, the tournament will also be played in Guwahati, Visakhapatnam, Dharamshala and Mullanpur this time around, with Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings picking them as the ‘second’ home venues.