IPL 2014 will be played in 3 different phases

In India for now 7 locations confirmed that excludes Delhi, Mumbai & Chennai for now

The 2014 Indian Premier League (IPL) matches to be played in three different phases. The first phase will be played outside India, across United Arab Emirates, while the second and third phases will be in India.

Seven venues were confirmed in India, which does not include Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Punjab for now.

BCCI said that the opening match, on the phase I, will be on April 16 in Abu Dhabi and it will be between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders and the last match, in UAE, will be at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on April 30 between Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad.

BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel told reporters that 20 matches will be played outside India and 20 in India. Matches in India will be played after May 1.

He was talking to reporters outside the venue, where the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is holding a meeting of the franchises of the IPL in Chennai today.

"We got confirmation from different states to host the matches in seven venues and the Home Ministry also gave its nod," he said

So far the venues fixed in India include Gujarat, Karnataka, Orissa, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. He added, BCCI is awaiting response from the Commissioners of Police in Delhi, Punjab Mumbai, Chennai.

It may be noted due to lesser number of teams, the duration of the league has also been shortened this time to 47 days and 60 matches, compared to 76 games played last season which was spread over 54 days.

On the other issues taken up during today's meeting, Patel said, issues regarding venues, contracts, how to go about the tournament, logistics, legal and technical issues and operational issues were discussed with the Franchisees.

Responding to a question on whether how revenue sharing, whether it will be pooled or not pooled, he said nothing was discussed. The game is played outside the country, very difficult to do the costing on.

Patel said "we have not considered as BCCI is awaiting on cost in totality. When these matches were played outside, BCCI takes lots of expenditure we need to work on all those."