Rajeev Shukla assures solution to match-timings opposed by Mumbai Indians, IPL teams

Bengaluru: The Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council (GC) chairman Rajeev Shukla on Sunday assured that the IPL match timings issue will be resolved amicably.

The IPL match timings have been much talked about since the last season. Star Sports, who eventually won the broadcast rights for the cash-rich league have put forward a new change in match timings.

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Following it, the IPL GC also announced that the evening games would be preponed to 7 pm from 8 pm, while the day matches will start from 5:30 pm now than 4:00 pm. However, after considering the request of the broadcasters, the GC did not receive the same response to the match-timings by a few teams.

Three-time IPL winners Mumbai Indians were among them and co-owner Akash Ambani stated the newly proposed timings will affect the revenue and viewership of the game since the two matches are expected to overlap as a result of doubleheaders.

“For us it is tough. Because people of Bombay work till 6:30-7. It's going to be impossible making for a game at 7'o clock. You are impacting the revenue. You are impacting the audience coming there. So we are objecting to that," Ambani was quoted saying by Cricbuzz.

Shukla, however, promised a solution would be found to the issue. "The broadcaster [Star India] had requested [shift in match timings] and the GC has considered it during its meeting. After that, we have received objections from a couple of franchises," he said.

"Now, we will be meeting most of the franchises here. We'll discuss with them. We'll discuss with the broadcaster as well, and in an amicable way, we'll find a solution. It is an administrative issue. We can sort it out at our level," he added.

Meanwhile, the GC has also informed the international cricket bodies that they will double the current annual fee (10%) for an overseas player only if they allow their players to play the entire tournament.