The International Cricket Council (ICC) postponed on Monday the 2020 T20 World Cup that was scheduled to take place in Australia in October-November. The postponement paves the way for BCCI to host this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) during those months, probably in the United Arab Emirates. It is known that the Indian junta will now approach the Union Minister of the Interior, Amit Shah, for approval. According to the ICC launch, “the disruption caused by COVID-19” forced the postponement of the T20 World Cup.
According to a BCCI official, after the postponement, the Indian board will first write to the Home Office, seeking approval to maintain the IPL in India. According to the protocol, the BCCI has to write to the Ministry of Sports, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior. But right now, the Interior Ministry is making all the decisions related to COVID in consultation with the Ministry of Health.
However, due to the spread of the coronavirus in the country, the BCCI has no hope of obtaining the go-ahead to host the tournament in India. As the board official said, having it in the UAE “shouldn’t be a problem” as the curve has flattened out considerably in the Emirates. He reported that BCCI officials will seek an audience with the Interior Minister sometime next week.
According to BCCI sources, another reason the UAE is preferred is that both Emirates and Etihad Airways have started regular flights while in India, only Air India is doing so at the moment. Also, the UAE does not have a 14-day quarantine rule. Downloading the ALHOSN UAE app – “the official integrated digital platform for COVID-19 testing in the UAE” – would suffice.
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BCCI appears to be keeping IPL franchises up to date on developments. As a franchise official said, at least four teams, Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals, have already started planning an IPL in the United Arab Emirates. “Before that, we want a three-week camp in a remote part of India that is in the green zone,” said the franchise official.
Meanwhile, the president of the IPL Governing Council, Brijesh Patel, pointed to the ICC for delaying the announcement. “They (ICC) should have canceled the World Cup much earlier. I don’t know why they were delayed. They should have given all the boards (Members) enough time to do their own programs … Bilateral programs, even for us, is that we could have planned much earlier, ”Patel told The Indian Express.
Earlier this year, the BCCI had deferred the IPL indefinitely due to the Covid-induced blockade. (Source file)
He reported that the BCCI has not set any date for the IPL and that a decision will be made at the next meeting of the Governing Council. “We will have a meeting of the Governing Council in about a week and, accordingly, we will finalize the dates and arrangements to be made for the IPL. We are waiting for government permission (to keep it in the UAE). We will (formally) inform franchises (in due course). Now that the World Cup is on hold, things will start to move, ”said the former middle-order hitter from India.
Earlier this year, the Indian junta had deferred the IPL indefinitely due to the COVID-induced blockade. Last week, during the Apex Council meeting, however, the headlines of the BCCI office told members that the IPL would be held, subject to the postponement of the T20 World Cup and the approval of the Indian government.
On Monday, at the meeting of the IBC Board of the world body (the commercial branch of the ICC), the decision to postpone this year’s T20 World Cup was finalized. With Cricket Australia hosts calling the organization of this year’s event “unrealistic”, the postponement was expected. The global body has marked two windows to contain the postponed event. According to an ICC release, consecutive T20 World Cups will take place in 2021 and 2022, but with an eye toward the pandemic, the game’s governing body has failed to respond to the sequence regarding host nations.
Originally, India was scheduled to host next year’s T20 World Cup, but after the postponement, this may change.
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