It’s Official!
The IPL 2020 Indian Premier League is moving to the UAE this year. The Emirates Cricket Board has acknowledged receiving a letter of intent from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to host the 13th edition of the IPL in the UAE. The proposal now has to get the green light from the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs.
Since it was declared that the 13th IPL edition will be held in UAE, fans have been asking when it will be starting and if fans will be allowed inside the stadium. The starting date has not been finalized yet and a final decision on whether spectators will be allowed through limited ticket sales will be based on the advice of the UAE government.
The proposed date for the tournament is September 19 to November 08, 2020. The IPL Governing Council will meet on August 1 to finalize the schedule and other key arrangements necessary for the tournament to be conducted in the UAE.
It is understood that the Governing Council is likely to discuss the dates, venues, training facilities, the quarantine measures along with the standard operating procedures that would be necessary for the event which comprises 8 teams, 60 matches to be played over 50 days.
The UAE has experience hosting the IPL, having staged 20 IPL matches in 2014. Hence it is expected that the tournament will be a success. ECB’s confidence comes partly from the fact that the country has been able to get a grip on the COVID-19 situation, with increasing recoveries and a steady decline in the number of new cases.
Officials also confirmed that the eight IPL franchises – Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals, Rajasthan Royals, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders, Kings XI Punjab, and the Royal Challengers Bangalore – will hold their respective pre-tournament training camps in the UAE.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has declared that they will not allow Asia Cup scheduled in September to be replaced by IPL 2020 at any cost. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) also has once again confirmed that they have started preparing for the T20 Asia Cup in Colombo. According to the SLC president, the board is preparing for the permissions from the Sri Lankan government to host the Asia Cup T20 event.
The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) earns substantial amount of monies by selling the commercial rights of the ACC events. Whatever earnings ACC does from the Asian Cricket events, the same is distributed as development funds to member countries. The PCB as host can generate larger kitty through ticket sales and other commercial assets around the T20 Asia Cup.
The commercial values attached to the T20 Asia Cup may not be large for the world’s most richest board BCCI, but these values matter a lot to the boards like PCB, SLC and ACC itself. The tussle for the same can make PCB play a spoilsport for IPL 2020.