BREAKING : IPL 2016 schedule announced

Played across 11 venues, the ninth edition will be spread over a span of 51 days. Apart from Mumbai, Pune, Rajkot, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Delhi and Mohali, matches will also take place at Raipur and Nagpur along with another venue, which will be confirmed later. Newcomers Rising Pune Supergiants will play their home matches at the MCA International stadium in Pune, while the home venue of Gujarat Lions is yet to be confirmed. The 2016 season will also see two more venues, as Raipur's Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh stadium will play host to two home games of Delhi Daredevils, whilst the Vidarbha stadium at Nagpur will host three home games of Kings XI Punjab.

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The Wankhede stadium in Mumbai will host both the opening game and the final. The first qualifier between the top two teams in the league will take place at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru on May 24, while the MCA International stadium in Pune will host the Eliminator and the second qualifier on May 25 and 27.

The complete schedule of the 2016 IPL season can be found here.

Rising Pune Supergiants and Gujarat Lions entered the competition after the Justice R M Lodha committee suspended the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for a period of two years. Rising Pune Supergiants will be led by Indian limited-overs skipper M S Dhoni, while Gujarat Lions will be captained by Suresh Raina.

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2016 will be a pivotal season in the history of the young league as it hopes to move forward after the suspensions of erstwhile champions Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. The season assumes additional importance in the wake of new and hugely successful leagues mushrooming across Australia, West Indies and neighbouring Pakistan.