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Indian Premier League – Effect of Distance Travelled by Teams during Group
Stages on their Home and Away Wins
Article in Annals of Tropical Medicine and Public Health · January 2020
DOI: 10.36295/ASRO.2020.231734
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Karkera et al (2020): Effect of distance travelled by teams in group matches Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17
Indian Premier League – Effect of Distance Travelled by Teams
during Group Stages on their Home and Away Wins
Praneet Karkera1, Amritashish Bagchi2* and Durbashree Bhattacharya3
1,3
Student, MBA, 2Assistant Professor,Symbiosis School of Sports Sciences, Symbiosis International
(Deemed University), Pune, Maharashtra, India
Abstract
Background:Indian Premier League (IPL) is an Indian professional T20 league which has been
played for the past 12 years. A huge amount of data is gathered and mined every year which could
lead us to some interesting and hidden facts about factors which are responsible for a team to win
the IPL trophy.Although the current form of athletes and team combinations play a key role in
helping any team emerge victorious in IPL, this research analyzed a new parameter “Total
Distance travelled by teams” and its effect on the Number of Home and Away wins.Methods: For
five IPL seasons from 2015 to 2019 data was obtained regarding the miles every team clocked and
their number of home and away wins.Conclusion:This study has shown that inter-state travel by
IPL teams during group stages of the tournament had adverse effects on their Total Number of
Home and Away wins.
Keywords: Cricket,Distance, Home and Away Wins, Indian Premier League, Sports Technology
How to cite this article: Karkera P, Bagchi A, Bhattacharya D (2020): Indian premier league- effect of
distance travelled by teams during group stages on their home and away wins, Ann Trop Med & Public
Health; 23(S17): SP231734. DOI: http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231734
1.Introduction:
Cricket is an outdoor sport played between two teams of 11 players each. Team that scores
maximum number of runs wins the game. Cricket is played around the world at both domestic and
international levels in three different formats: One day international (50 over’s per innings), Test
Cricket (5 day match) and 20-20 format (20 over’s per innings). More than a billion people follow
and love cricket around the world(1). Twenty 20 cricket since its inception in 2004 has redefined
the game completely. A whole new level of Batting innovations, Bowling Variations and Fielding
spectacles has become a part of cricket(2). Cricket, from a game of technique has now shifted more
towards unique all round power hitting by batsman and distinct bowling actions by bowlers. Indian
Premier League (IPL) is a professional T20 tournament in India consisting of eight teams. IPL
which started in 2008 is the most attended cricket league all over the world. Teams in IPL play
against each other two times during the league stage. Matches are played in a home and away
round robin format(3). Top 4 franchises after the group stage qualify for playoffs. All the teams play
14 matches each during the group stage. This two months long tournament makes all the teams
travel a lot throughout India for their Home and Away fixtures. With the popularity of IPL growing
day by day, more and more emphases is given by team owners on getting the right players for their
teams. This team formations and hiring staff for the tournament does not come cheap. There are
many factors which affects the cost of each team in a sports league. These factors are distance
travelled, number of travelling, sequences of travelling etc (4). If not managed properly, the distance
of travelling leads to tournament scheduling problem.Tournament scheduling problem is when
team franchises incur more cost than projected thereby reducing their margins. Some sports
leagues across the world have addressed this scheduling problem as a part of their budget. This is
natural, as popular leagues have huge economic importance due to excessive revenue generated by
them(5). Improper scheduling leads to more money being spent thereby reducing profits.
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Karkera et al (2020): Effect of distance travelled by teams in group matches Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17
Break maximization and distance minimization are a new class of problem instances which are to
be addressed(6). Governing bodies of leagues are yet to be pressurized by team franchises for a
better schedule during the course of tournament which would minimize the tournament scheduling
problem. However, team owners are yet to address this issue for the sake of winning a tournament.
To have a proper Home and Away game balance and also to save cost researchers have used the
Linear programming problems technique too, which solely focuses on the sports scheduling of the
Indian Premier League(7). Thus we understand that the tournament scheduling problem affects
travelling cost and requires optimization. But, does this scheduling problem affect the winning
chances of a team? When it comes to predicting winners, we seldom consider their distance
travelled for playing a match, into account. Mostly prediction of a match is based on the impact
factor of each player playing in their respective teams (1). Also, performance of athletes on field is
considered for finding overall weight of team(8). A player or teams past performances are also
considered while predicting the results of a match but their current fitness level due to travel is
highly ignored. A lot of exciting work has been done in Machine Learning and sports combined.
Machine learning has been used recently for predicting outcome of games and also during player
auctions. Using several factors like home ground advantage, previous performances. Also, venue,
performance against opposition, current form(8) researchers have tried predicting outcome of
matches. Pre match presentations talk about players which might perform well in a particular
match, mention about the nature of the pitch, what kind of team formation teams should go with.
But, the one factor which is lying under the radar here is the distance travelled by teams.
Professional athletes are in constant search for a competitive edge over its opponent.
Manipulating or disturbing circadian rhythms may offer such competitive advantage(9). Circadian
rhythms are daily cycles of physical and psychological factors such as body temperature, body
cortisol levels and alertness(9). Air travel desynchronizes the perfectly set Circadian rhythms by
offsetting sleep-wake cycle(10). Research shows that an athlete’s performance is hugely impacted
by interstate air travel, especially when the travel is in the eastward direction (10). With increase in
the professionalism of sport it results in increase in congestion of competitions and training
demands for athletes(11). Any modern professional athlete will have a significant amount of travel
commitments, ranging from short haul domestic travels (<5h) to long haul international travels
(>20h). Athletes need to recover from this travel for ensuring proper training or competition
success(11). For example, teams in Australian Rules football showed drastic reduction in kicks,
markings and handballs when playing away matches after travel as compared to playing at
home(10). Athletes tend to have shown suppressed neuromuscular force and power, increased
fatigue and soreness which will affect their competition(11). Research also advices that distance and
sprint running performance of athletes are affected. Dynamic muscular strength and endurance of
elbow flexors, is damaged following west-east travel. This damage is more when the travel is
across 6 times zones for untrained individuals(12). The effects that travel has are significant in the
amount of sleep that an Athlete gets. Sleep deprived athletes tend to have poor performances due to
impaired judgment, inability to concentrate etc. The sleep rating for athletes was poorer before
away game than Home games and a better Coach rating and Impact rating was observed for
athletes in home games than away(13). Slowed reaction times, decreased daytime alertness and
upset mood are also some of the side effects shown in athletes after travel (10). Psychological task
performance may also be affected along with reduced appetite, weakness and headaches (9). Hence,
a combination of desynchronisation between internal circadian rhythms with the external
environment, as well as impedance of recovery processes make long-haul travels an issue for most
teams(11).
We often read about teams blaming fatigue of players as a reason behind them losing a match.
Players getting ruled out of tournaments because of injuries and fatigue due to travel is not
uncommon. Lot of efforts are put in by teams travelling city to city for each match they play(14). In
many IPL seasons few teams had more than one Home grounds, making them travel for even their
Home matches(14). We never realise how many miles are clocked by teams in a season. A
consistent home field advantage has been noted in a variety of Amateur and professional sports
dating back to the 1800s(9). Apart from familiarity, fans and referees, fatigue has also been
considered for helping the Home team win(9). Researchers demonstrated that a visiting team if
travelled west to east and crossing at least one time zone shows a significant increase in probability
of home team winning(15). Impact of home team winning a match increases with distance that the
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Karkera et al (2020): Effect of distance travelled by teams in group matches Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17
other team travels, but at a decreasing rate(15). In this paper, distance travelled by each IPL teams
(excluding Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals due to ban of 2 years) for a total period of 5
years (2015 to 2019) is calculated along with their number of Home and Away wins. This will help
us to shed light on a unique parameter which might affect the chances of a team winning. The
findings of this study will also help the IPL team owners understand whether there is another
parameter than just Team formations and Player performances which affect their chances of
winning a tournament. This research will demand for a better and more balanced schedule from the
IPL governing council for teams during the IPL season.
Table 1. Team Names with acronyms
TEAM NAMES ACRONYM
Mumbai Indians MI
Royal Challengers Bangalore RCB
Sunrisers Hyderabad SRH
Kings Xi Punjab KXIP
Delhi Capitals DC
Kolkata Knight Riders KKR
2. Material & methods:
2.1. Selection of the subject
This research is a Quantitative analysis done on the Total distance travelled by 6 IPL teams
during group stages with respect to their number of Home and Away wins. Home and Away wins
was considered as our dependent variable and Distance travelled by teams as our independent
variable. Research was conducted for 5 years and 270 matches played from 2015 to 2019 with 6
teams namely Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Capitals, Sunrisers
Hyderabad, Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders. The study excluded Chennai Super Kings
and Rajasthan Royals as they faced a ban for two years for seasons 2016-17. Inclusion of Chennai
Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals would have led to unfair comparison between 6 teams which
have played all 5 seasons and 2 teams playing just 3. This would have given us abnormality while
analysing.
2.2. Selection of variables
The variables selected for this study were, Team Name, Travelled From, Travelled To, Winner,
Total Distance travelled in kilometres (kms), Total Number of Home wins and Total Number of
Away wins. As the study is completely based on Total distance travelled by teams and their
number of wins, data of inter-state travel for each match was obtained through “Travelled From”
and “Travelled To” variables. Number of Home and Away wins variables gave us the exact
number of wins for each team during all the 5 seasons for this study.
2.3. Data collection/procedure
First step of Data acquisition involved acquiring all the data from official Cricbuzz website,
which had fixtures and results shown for each and every match during a single season. For each of
the 6 teams, the above indicators of Team Name, Travelled From, Travelled To, Winner, Number
of Home wins and Number of Away wins were filled with correct data scrapped from the Cricbuzz
website for all the 14 matches that a team plays during the group stages. This data acquisition and
indicators filling step was repeated for all the 5 seasons. In the second step our most important
indicator which was “Total Distance travelled in kilometres (kms)” was calculated from the data
acquired in Stage 1. “Travelled From” and “Travelled To” indicators were already filled for all the
teams for every season. From this data the distance between both the states that a team travelled
was calculated with the help of Google search. Example, for a team who has played one match in
Bangalore and the Next in Mohali, “Travelled from” variable; was Bangalore and “Travelled To”
variable; was Mohali. Aerial distance between Bangalore and Mohali was then calculated and
filled into our “Total Distance Travelled in kilometres (kms)” indicator. It may happen that a team
after playing a match at a given location, does not travel to another location and remains there itself
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Karkera et al (2020): Effect of distance travelled by teams in group matches Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17
for their next fixture. In such scenarios the Aerial distance travelled was noted as Zero. Likewise
for all the seasons, 420 total distances were calculated for all the teams combined. After the second
stage all the five seasons’ distances was cumulated for each team and every teams “Total Distance
travelled” value was obtained. This gave us a clear picture as to which team had travelled the most
and which team had travelled the least.
The third stage included calculating the Home and Away wins for all the 6 teams. From the data
in step 1 each team was filtered based on “Travelled To” and “Winner” indicator. For a team
having “Travelled To” as their Home ground and was declared as the winner of the match, it was
considered as a Home win. Likewise if a team had travelled to any place other than its Home
Ground and had won the match, was considered as an Away win. In few IPL seasons, teams had
Home grounds in other states as well, other than its Home state. These wins were also considered
as a Home win. Likewise, Number of wins was calculated for all the 5 seasons for all 6 teams and
listed the Total Number of Home and Away wins individually. All the data was tabulated for each
team in four categories; Team Name, Total Distance Travelled (kms), Total Home wins and Total
Away Wins. For visually representing the tabulated results Tableau 2020.1 was used. Tableau
2020.1 is the latest analytical tool for Data Visualization which provided ease for computing our
findings. In Tableau 2020.1 the tabulated results were visualized in the form of line graph for
perfectly distinguishing between each value and each team from least to highest. From the
Visualized data a conclusion was drawn as to whether there is an effect of Distance travelled on the
number of Home and Away wins of teams or not.
2.4. Statistical Technique
SPSS Statistics version 24 was utilized for identifying correlation between our dependent &
independent variables. In SPSS, Spearman's rank order correlation technique was used for finding
existence of positive or negative correlation between Total distance travelled, Wins percentage and
Rank of teams. The level of statistical significance was considered at p=0.05. Along with Tableau,
analysis using SPSS provided more support to our analysis to reach concrete results.
3. Results and Discussion:
The dataset prepared during this study had all matches data since the 2015 edition of the IPL,
till the season played in 2019. Results obtained are analytically represented in Figure 1. Teams are
placed in ascending order based on the Total Distance they have travelled. From the results it was
quite evident that the schedules followed during all 5 seasons were not at all equitable and fair.
There is a complete and unfair advantage which is clearly noted for some teams and very little for
the others. This unfair advantage is completely hidden and is not easily visible while the teams
perform during the season. While obtaining the data one interesting factor worth noticing was the
amount of ‘To and Fro’ travel that some teams clocked. Schedule prepared was very tough on
some teams as they went through unnecessary back and forth travel.
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Figure 1. Analytical Representation of Acquired Data for all 6 Teams
The summary of data obtained after Acquisition step are indicated below in Table 2. Each of
these team play 7 Home matches and 7 Away matches during a single season. Hence, total number
of home and away matches played from 2015 to 2019 for each team was taken as 35 and
percentage of home and away wins was calculated accordingly. For all the 6 teams 3 parameters
were introduced which would guide us to our conclusion, Total Distance Travelled, Total Home
wins % and Total Away wins %.
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3.1. Analysis of Total Distance Travelled
After summing up Distance that a team travelled from 2015 to 2019, observation was drawn
that Kings XI Punjab have travelled the most amongst all 6 teams. KXIP have travelled 71,474
kms which is 18,116 more than the least travelled team which is Sunrisers Hyderabad. SRH have
travelled a mere 53,358 kms in all 5 seasons combined followed closely by Mumbai Indians with
56,957 kms. The amount of back and forth travel that MI and SRH had to cover were significantly
lesser that KXIP. This means more time to relax and recover for the athletes.
3.2. Analysis of Total Home Wins
Home ground advantage is what every team looks forward to in IPL and want to win every
match in front of their Home crowd. From Figure 1 we observe that the team which has most
number of Home wins is Sunrisers Hyderabad. SRH have won 23 matches at Home out of total 35
matches played. This is a massive number, as winning 65.71% of their matches at home showcases
their dominance. Contrarily, Royal Challengers Bangalore has minimum Home wins in all 5
seasons combined with only 14 wins.
3.3. Analysis of Total Away Wins
A better performance by teams in Away matches, almost guarantees a spot of any team in the
playoffs. Team Mumbai Indians have the highest Away win percentage from all 35 matches
played, showcasing why they are such a successful franchise in IPL. Mumbai Indians have double
the number of wins (20) in Away fixtures than Kings XI Punjab (10).
Table2. Total Distance travelled along with Percentage of Home and Away wins
Teams Total Distance Total Home Total Away
Travelled (Kms) Wins % Wins %
Mumbai Indians 56957 57.14 57.14
Royal Challengers 65953 40 42.86
Bangalore
Kings XI Punjab 71474 45.71 28.57
Delhi Capitals 58975 57.14 34.29
Sunrisers Hyderabad 53358 65.71 45.71
Kolkata Knight 71279 57.14 48.57
Riders
Results obtained from SPSS software are tabulated in Table 3 & 4. The data processed in SPSS
was operated with Spearman's rank-order correlation method. Table 3 indicates a clear negative
correlation between Team’s win percentage and Total Distance Travelled. Also, the test was found
significant at 0.019 indicating evidence against null hypothesis. There is less than 5% probability
that results are random. Hence, null hypothesis can be rejected. Alternative hypothesis which states
there is significant effect of Distance Travelled by teams on their wins percentage stands true. This
strengthens our results obtained in Table 2, where SRH have travelled least distance and have most
wins under their belt. Likewise, KXIP who had travelled more had least wins to their name.
Table 3. Correlation Analysis for Total Distance Travelled and Win Percentage of
Teams
Correlation
Teams Win Percentage
Spearman’s Total Distance Correlation -.424*
rho Travelled Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed) .019
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*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level
Rank of teams is the position they secured after completion of League stage round. As only top
4 teams qualify for playoffs it necessary for teams to have lesser rank (1, 2, 3 or 4). Table 4
indicates positive correlation between Rank of Teams after league stage with the Total distance
travelled by them. A Sig. (2-tailed) value of 0.043 supports the positive correlation showcasing
significance.
Table4. Correlation Analysis for Total Distance Travelled and Rank of Teams
Correlation
Rank of Teams in League Stage
Spearman’s Total Distance Correlation .372*
rho Travelled Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed) .043
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level
To those who are already familiar with Twenty-Twenty format of Cricket, know that there is
certain amount of unpredictability associated with the format. Researchers have tried to relate
factors which might reduce this unpredictability. According to a study researchers have not linked
air travel with having an effect on athletes sleep patterns(10). There were trends shown by athletes
of increased wake time, decreased sleep efficiency and sleep quality but these effects were very
minimal and not significant. Eastward inter-state travel associating with 1.5 to 2 hour advances in
the body clock also had very little effects on the sleep patterns of athletes(10). Thus sleeping pattern
of athletes getting affected due to travel and having an effect on their performance can be ruled out.
However, research has shown sizeable home field advantage due to intra time zone travel(9). Teams
which are weak performers at home matches, also tend to win more than their relative ability
during home fixtures. This outcome seems to be higher for non-regional matches(16). There has
been a gradual improvement in standard of travel along with affordability. Teams earlier used to
travel by seaways, than later air travel became more prominent after 1965. Regional matches
attract more crowds and benefit the home team as they have to travel less; hence regional matches
show greater home advantage than international matches(16). Studies have proven the impact which
travel has on an athlete or a team, but whether it affects their winning chances or not was the major
findings in this paper. Our study used the technique of data analysis to assess the effect of Distance
travelled on the Number of Home and Away wins of IPL teams during the 2015 to 2019 season. 5
seasons of Indian Premier League data provided enough support to our analysis giving distinct and
clear results. As there was little work done before in proving how and where does travel affect a
team’s performance, these results directly lead us to answers. Results also show that on an average
during a single season teams in IPL travel around 12,600 kms, which is a huge number when
compared to other professional leagues around the globe (17). When iterated individually, this
average has increased more because of only selected teams every year. Whereas, rest of the teams
cover less miles in every single season. The longest distance that a team had to travel during the
2019 season is the Chennai-Mohali route, mapping 1,994 kms in one direction(18). Similarly, the
shortest distance is between Delhi and Jaipur covering a meagre 236 kms (18). Having a Quantitative
analysis for our research provided clearer facts to answer all the research questions and was easily
visually represented as well in Figure 4, for discussion.
Team Sunrisers Hyderabad with the most number of Home wins has travelled the least. On the
contrary team Kings XI Punjab who has travelled the highest, bag least number of Away wins.
SRH have qualified for playoffs in 4 seasons from 2015 to 2019, whereas KXIP have failed to even
make it to 1. This sums up the journey of both SRH and KXIP in IPL so far based on their Total
Distance Travelled. Kings XI Punjab has been in the bottom two of IPL group stage standings 3
times out of the 5 seasons, and has also made the playoffs on only two occasions so far(19). The
second least travelled team which is Mumbai Indians have the most number of Away wins to its
name. Having travelled less has clearly helped MI make the playoffs and become IPL champions 3
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times from 2015 to 2019. Their winning streak in odd seasons has been an impeccable achievement
in IPL by any team. Mumbai Indians have seldom travelled back and forth for their matches during
any season which also pushes them a bit ahead of other teams. Royal Challengers Bangalore who
is the Third most travelled team, are yet to win an IPL trophy. RCB have qualified for playoffs on
only 2 occasions during the last 5 seasons. Our analysis showcases their poor form at Home with
the least number of wins among all 6 teams. On one hand were teams are seen dominating the
home grounds, RCB has failed to make it as a fortress for them. Could distance travelled by RCB
be the important piece missing in their puzzle to win an IPL trophy? Delhi Capitals on the other
hand are hidden in between all 6 teams, with no significant affect shown when analysed based on
Distance travelled. Kolkata Knight Riders emerged as a special case in this analysis with good
balance of Home and Away wins. KKR has performed exceptionally well, inspite of being the
Second most travelled team. KKR had to cover long miles for their Away matches as they were the
only team hailing from East India. Surprisingly where we have 4 teams who have been directly
affected by the miles they travelled, KKR despite of getting to travel a lot have qualified for the
playoffs 3 times from 2015 to 2019. SPSS analysis of our dependent and independent variables
provided more support to our results obtained in Figure 1. There was negative correlation shown
between, Teams wins percentage and total distance travelled. Our study was able to statistically
prove that more the distance travelled by teams will have negative effect on their wins percentage.
For both Home and Away wins the effect of Distance is the same wherein if any team is travelling
for longer distances, there will be a clear added advantage to their opponents. Our study also
clarified the effect of Total Distance travelled on position or rank of teams in league stages. Only 4
teams qualify for playoffs and a positive correlation with Distance travelled indicated higher rank
of a team with more distance travel. This states as the distance covered by any team increases, they
are pushed further down in the points table. This justifies why KXIP did not make it to even one
playoff during these five years.
In depth research has already been conducted on the effects that travel has on an athlete.
Researchers have demonstrated that it is more difficult for the body to adjust itself due to advances
in daily routine during travel(9). Study has shown disturbances in internal body routine because of
differences in clock time during Home and Away matches(10). Further this study leaves us with
enough data for predicting the winner of IPL 2020. Now for future analysis discuss about the
Distance that teams will travel in the 2020 season of IPL and come up with the top four franchises
which might qualify for playoffs. Prediction for 2020 season based on their distance travelled
would directly strengthen and support our analysis even more. Already there has been work done
on this parameter wherein researchers were also able to optimize the Distance travelled by teams
by nearly 30%, which is the need of the hour for IPL teams (5). Studies have proven that a more fair
and equitable schedule can be prepared, showcasing reduction by almost 37,000 kms in the total
distance travelled by teams(5). This equitability will completely eradicate the possibility of unfair
competitions while playing during IPL season.
4. Conclusion:
This study investigated whether Distance travelled by IPL teams during group stages affect their
chances of winning in Home and Away fixtures. Travel has been an unavoidable stress for many
high performance athletes since the beginning of their career. Regular short and long haul travel
will continue to be a part of the competition; it is how well the authorities manage it which makes
it a boon or a curse for athletes. From the results of this study it can be found out that the Distance
travelled by teams during Group stages does in fact have an effect on their Number of Home and
Away wins. With the help of data our study analysed that 4 teams, SRH, MI, RCB and KXIP had a
direct effect on their Home and Away wins based on the total distance they travelled. Also, it can
be observed that the teams which have travelled the least, remain on top of the table and have
better chances of qualifying for the playoffs as compared to the teams which have travelled more.
These astonishing numbers of distances are minus the distance that teams travel for reaching the
airports and stadiums at various match venues.
The above critical points are important for IPL team franchises to consider, while looking for
success in IPL. This study proves that there does exist another parameter apart from Team
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formations and Player performances for winning an IPL tournament. The Indian Premier League
governing council which is responsible for coming up with schedule for IPL every season should
focus on having a more balanced schedule. Having a more balanced schedule would even up things
for teams to compete in a fair environment. Distance travelled by teams, which was only
considered till now by IPL franchises as a monetary factor to be included as a part of budget,
should also be taken into account for its effect on them winning or losing a tournament. IPL 2019
witnessed a comparatively better schedule, in all the 5 seasons, as teams had only 1 Home ground
for their Home fixtures. This came as a relief from earlier seasons wherein teams had multiple
Home grounds and had to travel even to play Home matches. Thus, strategically this could lead to
a better Home and Away travel ratio, thereby solving the issue of distance travelled. Also, the
training staff travelling with teams must be equipped enough to have a proper planning and
strategies for dealing with fatigue in athletes due to travel. Reports show that highly trained and
motivated athletes are very less affected by Jet lag due to travel. Hence, post travel recovery and
preparing the athlete before travel would definitely come in handy for reducing effect of distance
travelled on their game performance.
Ethical Clearance: Not applicable
Source of Funding: Self-funded
Conflict of Interest: There is no conflict of interest among the authors
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