All league games of the Indian Premier League beginning March 23 will start at the usual prime time spot of 8 pm, said COA chief Vinod Rai on Thursday.

The afternoon matches will start at 4 pm and night matches at 8 pm.

There was speculation that the BCCI was under pressure to change the timings of the night matches to 7 pm when most teams wanted the Board to stick to the 8 pm slot.

“Matches will begin at 8 pm,” said Rai after the COA meeting here.

Even last year, there was speculation that the matches will have an earlier 7 pm start but all league games began at 8 pm. However, the play-offs including the final began at 7 pm.

“We welcome BCCI’s decision to retain the match timings. Like last year, we wanted the games to have an 8 pm start. This time, we were not yet approached by the BCCI regarding match timings but we were eagerly awaiting its decision,” a team official told.