Ahmedabad, Visakhapatnam also to host IPL matches

Mumbai, March 10 (IANS) The second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will have Ahmedabad and Visakhapatnam as additional venues.

Announcing this here Tuesday, IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi told reporters that Dharmasala and Nagpur were also being considered for hosting some matches.

The two new venues are in addition to the existing eight -- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Mohali.

Modi said the governing body was still working on the revised schedule to avoid clash of dates with the April-May general elections and the new itinerary would be released in a couple of days.

'We have got confirmation from three states in writing but we want everyone to give it in writing before announcing the revised schedule, though 90 percent of the states have verbally given their approval. We went through every stakeholder, including the state governments, and asked them what are the dates they don't want matches in their cities,' said Modi.

Rubbishing speculation about Jaipur not being a venue, Modi said the pink city will host matches of Rajasthan Royals.

'I can't give you the number of matches in Jaipur but the Rajasthan government was the first to give the security clearance. But they have a blackout period in May when we can't hold matches there,' he said.

Modi also said that Chennai Super Kings won't play all their seven matches at home.

The opening and the closing ceremonies of the Twenty20 league will be at the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.