Week Ahead, April 1-7: Football Leagues Enter Business End; IPL Gathers Steam

April of 2024 opens with a host of big-ticket sporting events lined up. Football leagues in India and the world are entering their business end and the Indian Premier League table is starting to heat up. Here we have listed all key sports events lined up for the upcoming week (April 1-7). (More Sports News)

Cricket

The Indian Premier League will enter its third week as April begins and the points table will start taking a solid shape. All teams will again feature at least once with the week beginning with a Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals clash on Monday.

Just like the previous week, this week will also have a double header only on Sunday.

Alongside the IPL, Bangladesh are also hosting Sri Lanka and the tour will end on April 3 with the second and last Test match currently going on in Chattogram.

In women's cricket, the New Zealand-England series will move on to the ODI phase after the White Ferns were handed a 4-1 loss in the T20Is. The Bangladesh-Australia T20I series will also move ahead after Australia notched up a victory in the opening game. Sri Lanka and South Africa will also play the third and series-deciding T20I on Wednesday.

Among associates, Namibia will be touring Oman for a 5-match T20I series starting Monday while the United States' cricket team will be hosting Canada with the T20Is beginning by the end of this week.

In England, top division County Cricket also begins from this Friday.

Football

You can begin your week by watching the Olympique de Marseille host Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1 in the 'Le Classique'. The match takes place on Sunday as per French time but airs past midnight in India.

Manchester United playing Chelsea on Saturday will be the biggest fixture in the Premier League this week. However, with the title race heating up eyes will be on Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool who all will be in action on Thursday and Friday.

Concacaf Champions Cup quarter finals are also scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.

Indian Super League 2023-24 has entered its business league and the race for the top spot is going to be a heated one. From Thursday, the second-last round of fixtures will begin.

Mumbai City FC, Mohun Bagan, FC Goa and Odisha FC are all in the race to win the league sheild while all others except Hyderabad have a chance to be in the top six and book a playoff spot. Mumbai City will be up against Hyderabad on Monday to begin the week.

I-League title race will also get decided this week with Mohammedan SC one win away from it. When the Black Panthers will take the ground against Shillong Lajong on Saturday, they would like to seal the top spot and confirm their promotion to the Indian Super League for next season.

Other Sports

Monte Carlo Masters begins Sunday and there are speculations of the return of Rafael Nadal for the tournament.

In Formula 1, action will shift to Japan with the Japanese Grand Prix sheduled for Sunday. Max Verstappen will be aiming to solidify his top spot in the driver's championship in the island.

The Paris marathon also takes place on Sunday.

Another big-ticket event on Saturday and Sunday will be the Wrestlemania's 40th edition dubbed Wrestlemania XL.