Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) put to rest all speculations on the 12th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as it announced that the Twenty20 tournament will be played in India and not abroad.

"The Hon'ble Supreme Court of India appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) on Tuesday met in New Delhi to discuss the VIVO IPL 2019 venues and window," BCCI said in a statement on Tuesday.

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"Based on the preliminary discussions with the appropriate central and state agencies / authorities, it was decided that the 12th edition of the world's most popular and competitive T20 tournament will be scheduled to be played in India," it added.

The tournament is likely to start on March 23. This time, IPL 12 will commence early due to the ICC World Cup, which gets underway on May 30 in England.

"It is proposed that the VIVO IPL 2019 will commence on March 23, 2019. The detailed schedule will be finalised in consultation with the appropriate authorities," the Indian cricket board said.

"The COA will then have detailed discussion with all the Stakeholders before releasing the VIVO IPL 2019 Schedule," it added.

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Committee of Administrators (COA) chairman Vinod Rai said, "We will have all the primary venues backed up by alternate venues in case there is a need to shift matches. This will be done in consultation with central and state government authorities as well as security agencies."

Earlier, there were speculations that IPL 2019 would be moved out of India due to the general elections. In 2009 (South Africa) and 2014 (partly in UAE) the tournament was shifted out of India as the UPA governments felt it would be difficult to provide security with the general elections happening at around the same time.