Barring Rohit, Dhoni, all IPL captains to give the opening ceremony a miss

Breaking a ten-year-old tradition of the Indian Premiere league (IPL), the BCCI decided on Wednesday that all eight franchise captains does not need to attend the opening ceremony of the eleventh edition. The forced decision was because of a logistical goof up.

New Delhi: Breaking a ten-year-old tradition of the Indian Premiere league (IPL), the BCCI decided on Wednesday that all eight franchise captains does not need to attend the opening ceremony of the eleventh edition. The forced decision was because of a logistical goof up.

Only Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings captains Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni, who will face off each other in the IPL 2018 opener will attend the ceremony scheduled on April 7 at the Wankhede Stadium.

The other six captains meanwhile, will give the opening ceremony a miss. It is learnt that all eight captains will do a special video shoot on April 6 and leave for their respective cities that very evening itself.

Till last year, the convention 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 opening ceremony would be held in Mumbai on April 7 before the first match between MI and CSK.

However the goof up happened because senior IPL officials didn't do their homework on the logistical aspect of four other franchises who have matches next day.

On April 8, there is a double header with Delhi Daredevils taking on Kings XI Punjab in Mohali at 4 pm while RCB will meet KKR in Kolkata at 8 pm.

"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," a senior BCCI official told PTI.

"Sample this. If Ashwin and Gambhir would have attended the opening ceremony, they could only boarded a 9pm 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," the senior official fumed.

Even Virat Kohli (RCB) and Dinesh Karthik (KKR) would have had to travel a day before the match although they have an evening game (8pm) to play.

When contacted, acting president CK Khanna said:"We are aware that there are some logistical issues that have cropped up. It will be sorted at the earliest. I think captains will be called a day earlier and their portion will be shot and shown during the opening ceremony."