IPL 2022: BCCI celebrates India's Tokyo Olympics medal winners: Watch!

Mumbai, March 26: The 15th season of the Indian Premier League got off to a rocking start with defending champions Chennai Super Kings taking on last year's runner-up Kolkata Knight Riders in the season-opener at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday (March 26).

In the first match of the game, new KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer won the toss and invited the Super Kings to bat first. Both sides have new skippers at the helm, with MS Dhoni stepping down from CSK's captaincy and handing it over to India all rounder Ravindra Jadeja.

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Prior to the start of the match, in a heartwarming gesture, the BCCI felicitated and awarded cash prizes to the Tokyo Olympic medal winners. To celebrate India's historic outing at the Tokyo Games last year, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly along with other BCCI office bearers and dignitaries presented the medallists with awards.

A touch of class to celebrate India's #Tokyo2020 medal winners 👏 👏#TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/nx4oYxBK4C

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 26, 2022

Present at the stadium, Neeraj Chopra, who became the first Indian to win a Track and Field Olympic Gold medal, was awarded a cash prize of Rs. 1 crore. Apart from that, Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist boxer Lovlina Borgohain, who was also present at the stadium, received a cash prize of Rs. 25 lakhs.

Indian men's hockey team skipper Manpreet Singh was present to receive the cash prize from the BCCI for the Indian men's hockey team, who won a historic bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. The men's team received a cash prize of Rs. 1.25 crores.

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The 15th season of the glitzy T20 league then kicked off to an emotional start as the tournament paid tribute to the legendary Shane Warne, the Australian spin magician who passed away earlier this month in Thailand after a cardiac arrest.

The Wankhede stadium is hosting the season opener between CSK and KKR. After being put into bat, Chennai were five wickets down midway through the innings with the score reading 61/5 after 11 overs.