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According to a report, the celebration will kick off with a grand opening ceremony at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday, March 22, ahead of the match between KKR and RCB.
BCCI to host opening ceremonies across all venues to celebrate 18th edition of Indian Premier League. (Picture Credit: PTI)
The 2025 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is set to start on Saturday (March 22) in Kolkata with a match between defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders and Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bengaluru. The match between the two teams, which also featured in the first-ever IPL match on April 18, 2008, is set to take place at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Ahead of the IPL 2025 season opener, it has been reported that to celebrate the 18 years of IPL, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is planning to host special opening ceremonies across all 13 venues this year.
According to a report in Sportstar on Tuesday (March 18), which quoted a source as saying, “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 told Sportstar.
Singer Shreya Ghosal and Bollywood actress Disha Patani are set to perform during the opening ceremony in Kolkata on Saturday, which will also be attended by ICC chairman Jay Shah.
As per the available information, the BCCI 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.”
The matches of IPL 2025 are set to take place in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, New Chandigarh, Dharamsala, Guwahati and Visakhapatnam from March 22 to May 25.
- Location :
Kolkata [Calcutta], India, India
