IPL 2018: 36 cities across 19 states to host the IPL Fan Parks

The Indian Premier League (IPL) matches are played at the biggest cricketing centres in the country. Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata host the hottest of the games but the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) also wants to propagate the game to the smaller cities. In the centres that don’t host matches, the board has set up ‘fan parks’ to give the viewers the closest to the stadium experience.

IPL Fan Parks was first introduced in 2015, it is a public screening of IPL matches that are played on the weekends. The entry is free and fans can go there to watch the game live with thousands of others. This time around for IPL 2018, BCCI has finalized 36 cities across 19 states as the Fan Parks.

BCCI’s Anant Datar confirmed that “In Gujarat, Rajkot, Surat and Nadiad are three cities selected to have IPL Fan Parks,” he said.

“BCCI’s main objective is to reach out to fans and cover maximum regions. We have selected only those cities which are not hosting IPL matches, so that people of these cities can experience stadium-like excitement,” Datar added.

Fan parks for April 7 and 8

The number of people who turn up at these fan parks has been on a consistent rise and that has prompted the board to further invest into it. For the first couple of days this season on April 7 and 8 the IPL Fan will be hosted in Raipur, Bhopal, Rajkot and Tirunelveli.

“The number may go up even further next year,” Datar said. DNA Entertainment Networks Pvt Ltd has been officially contracted and authorised by the BCCI to plan, produce and execute IPL Fan Park this year in 36 cities across India on all weekends,” he stated.

The media manager of Saurashtra Cricket Association Himanshu Shah, confirmed Rajkot’s Racecourse ground will host the Fan Park in the city and they are expecting more than 8,000 people to catch the games live.

“This would be a novel experience for people of Rajkot as the city had witnessed ten IPL matches during 2016 and 2017. This time, however, no IPL matches have been allotted to Rajkot but fans can get stadium-like excitement by visiting these fan parks,” Shah said.

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