The IPL calendar January proposal has found a high-profile backer in Juhi Chawla, the Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner, who sided with Lalit Modi’s call to move the tournament out of its April-May slot. Chawla said the Indian Premier League has earned the right to influence the cricket calendar, and she questioned the logic of playing the biggest cricket tournament on the planet in the most brutal heat of the Indian summer. Her comments came after Modi, the founding chairman of the IPL, again pushed for the league to start in January.
The IPL calendar January idea was put to Chawla in a post by Modi on X, and she answered in full. “The IPL no longer needs to find its place in the cricket calendar. It has earned the right to influence it. So why play the biggest cricket tournament on the planet in the most brutal heat? And if the calendar is being rethought, why not January instead of April-May?” she wrote. She added: “Better conditions. Better cricket. Overall a better experience for everyone! The IPL has evolved. Maybe it should have a calendar now too!”
Modi has proposed two versions of the change. In an interview with Cricbuzz on 2 November, he said the best window should be identified between October and the end of April, with January as a concrete starting proposal, and he has also pushed the idea again in a social media post on 9 November. He said the IPL does not need the International Cricket Council to give it a window, because the Board of Control for Cricket in India owns and operates the tournament, and the board can decide when to stage it. He compared the IPL’s commercial pull in cricket to what the English Premier League is to football.
IPL calendar January start and the heat problem
The IPL calendar January start is aimed at the heat problem that has shadowed the tournament for years. The league is played in April and May, when temperatures across much of India are at their highest, and Modi has said an earlier start could improve the experience for players and viewers, while also opening up better broadcasting options. Chawla made the same point, saying a January launch would give better conditions, better cricket and a better experience for everyone involved.
The IPL calendar January debate is about more than comfort. Modi has argued that the league has grown into such a strong sporting and commercial brand that it no longer needs a dedicated window in the international cricket calendar, and that the BCCI should plan ahead for a time when bilateral and ICC broadcast-rights income could face pressure. He called the IPL the BCCI’s principal commercial asset and an important source of future growth, and he said the board should be planning for that risk now.
IPL calendar January plan and the 94-match question
The IPL calendar January plan comes with a bigger tournament attached. Modi has suggested increasing the IPL to 94 matches, up from the current 74, with 10 teams playing every opponent at home and away for 90 league matches plus four playoffs. That is 35 more matches than the original format, an increase of almost 60%, and it would need a longer window than the current March to May slot. The IPL began in 2008 with eight teams and a 59-match schedule, and the BCCI has since expanded the league to 10 teams.
The BCCI has not announced a change to the IPL calendar January plan, but the board is already talking about the calendar. Board secretary Devajit Saikia told PTI that there is a discussion in the BCCI as well as in the IPL Governing Council as to whether the tournament can start a little earlier than the end of March. This year the IPL started around 28 or 29 March and ended on 31 May, and Saikia said the board is looking at whether it can start a little earlier to deal with weather conditions. IPL chairman Arun Dhumal had also suggested dividing the tournament into two windows to fit in more matches.
Modi has said the IPL calendar January change would need cooperation beyond the BCCI, and he has asked ICC chairman Jay Shah to help facilitate discussions with other cricket boards. He said countries producing overseas players should have reasons to support any new arrangement, and that the purpose of planning a new calendar is to improve it. A January start would be a major change to the international calendar and to domestic cricket in India, and it would need to be settled in the new Future Tours Programme. The IPL calendar January proposal is a suggestion from the league’s founding chairman, not an approved change, and the discussion will run on from here.