The schedule for the first 21 of the 74 matches of the IPL 2024 has been announced. Over this period, Delhi Capitals will play five matches. Three of them are against Punjab Kings at Mohali on March 23, Rajasthan Royals at Jaipur on March 28, and Mumbai Indians at Mumbai on April 7.

However, they will ‘host’ the other two matches, against Chennai Super Kings on March 31 and Kolkata Knight Riders on April 3, at Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ADA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam instead of the Arun Jaitley Stadium in their own city.

Despite not being home to any franchise, Visakhapatnam has hosted 13 Indian Premier League matches across 2012, 2015, 2016, and 2019. In the last of these four seasons, they had been ‘host’ to two Delhi Capitals matches, against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings.

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IPL teams sometimes have a second home venue, where they play a few matches (usually two, over a short span of time) to help build the team’s popularity outside the home city. In 2023, for example, Rajasthan Royals played two of their seven home games at Guwahati (and five at Jaipur) and Punjab Kings two at Dharamsala (and the remaining five at Mohali).

Additionally, the 2024 Women’s Premier League, set to begin on February 23, will be played across two legs of 11 matches, in Bengaluru and Delhi. The Arun Jaitley Stadium will host 11 consecutive WPL games from March 5, including the Eliminator on March 15 and the final on March 17. The Delhi curators will require some time to prepare the pitch ahead of IPL 2024.

While it may not be a direct reason, it is worth a mention that the IPL will coincide with the Indian General Elections, to be conducted in April and May. With security a matter of concern, the IPL was played entirely in South Africa in 2009 and partly in the UAE in 2014, though it was played in entirety in India in 2019. As national capital, New Delhi is likely to remain in focus for the months to follow.