The Indian Premier League III will start on 12th March, 2010, just a day before the final of the Hero Honda FIH World Cup. The FIH preponed the world cup due to fear of the IPL marring the popularity of the Hockey World Cup and the biggest event of hockey being left alone. But still the FIH fears that the IPL may spoil the party on the final day. 13th March being saturday, the IPL may even put two or three matches that day.
However the FIH can't shift the event any more earlier as the Winter Olympics will be taking place the previous week and two olympic sporting event can not be held at the same time. FIH will talk to BCCI and IPL about the situation and may request them to not to place any match on that day.
However if the IPL does not agree on that the hockey world cup final may be a small affair as India has so little chance of qualifying that far. It won't be possible to attract the cricket crazy Indian public to watch a hockey match not involving India. And the FIH won't like it as they have high estimate of financial gain from the event.
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