UAE will be hosting IPL 2020 after Central Government’s permission: Brijesh Patel (IPL Chairman)
At the beginning of this month, it was said by Arun Singh Dhumal who is the treasurer of BCCI that they are considering hosting the IPL abroad as a last resort to save the tournament.
IPL Chairperson, Mr. Brijesh Patel said that after getting a nod from the Central government, the Indian Premier League will be held in the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Patel quoted words were “IPL 2020, that was postponed due to coronavirus will now be held in the UAE. We have applied for the government’s permission.” He also mentioned that the further course of action will be discussed in the IPL General Council.
The 2009 edition of the franchise-based league was held in South Africa when the league coincided with India’s elections and five years later for the same reason, UAE hosted the early matches of the tournament. So Mr. Brijesh said that “We have played there before and they are familiar in organizing international matches. They are well equipped.” He also said that “From the pandemic position, too, the situation is significantly better there.”
According to some reports it can be said that the IPL’s Governing Council will meet within a week or ten days to plan the next action viewing the United Arab Emirates as the host of IPL this year. Mr. Brijesh Patel told a news agency that “The IPL GC will meet within a week or 10 days and all decisions will be taken there. As of now, the plan is to have a full-fledged IPL compromising sixty games and most likely in the UAE.”
The foreign players who come to support the teams will be directly flying to the UAE from their respective countries.
A team owner said that “Our players will need at least 3 to 4 weeks of training, if not more. We will finalize all our plans once the BCCI announces the dates. It looks like the IPL will be in the UAE and we are ready for that.” {Source: PTI}
The commencement of the thirteenth edition of IPL was scheduled from the 29th of March but in this era of coronavirus outbreak where everything scheduled to be kept on a pause, this event met the same destiny and got postponed.
On the 20th of July, it was decided by the ICC i.e. International Cricket Council postpone the Men’s T20 World Cup viewing the horrifying situation created by the coronavirus. The decision was declared after a meeting of the commercial subsidiary board of the ICC, the IBC board.
This huge event was originally scheduled to take place from the 18th of October to the 15th of November in Australia. On Monday, as per the decision of the ICC to post one the World Cup, it has somehow made it possible to conduct the IPL between September and the beginning of November.
The International Cricket Council read in aa statement that “The IBC board will also continue to evaluate the situation in relation to being able to stage the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021 in New Zealand in February next year. In the meantime, planning for this event continues as scheduled.”
BCCI’s main revenue earner is the IPL. The Indian Board would lose five hundred million dollars if the tournament does not take place this year. This 7- week tournament which normally gathers 1.3 billion spectators from across the nation is estimated to generate more than eleven billion dollars for the economy of India.
