The Board of Control for Cricket in India has partially agreed to the Indian Premier League broadcaster Star Sports’ demand. Considering the India’s tour of Australia will start immediately after the IPL the board was not in a position to coincide the IPL 2020 final with Diwali. It has agreed to offer more prime time games by extending the duration of the league.
Instead of the earlier tentative plan to start the IPL Season 13 in the last week of September, the BCCI has now confirmed that the first match in the UAE will be played on September 19. The final is being planned on November 8, while Star Sports was keen to extend the date of the decider by at least several days.
The IPL Governing Council chairman Brijesh Patel too has reportedly confirmed that theSeptember 19-November 8 dates have been finalised for the 13th season of the eight-team tournament, national news agency PTI has stated.
A formal announcement will be made after the IPL Governing Council meeting next week. The BCCI is also expecting to get the Government nod by then as the players, officials and other associates are to be flown to the UAE.
A Star India source has revealed the tentative IPL dates to SportzFront and added that they still expect the final to be on November 10 or 11. The league under the revised plans will span over more than 50 days as against the earlier provision of accommodating the 60 matches across 41 days.
This will significantly reduce the number of double headers and ensure more prime time games, resulting in better returns for the advertisers. There will effectively be only five double headers to be split across seven weekends.
The franchisees and the broadcaster are still awaiting a formal confirmation from the BCCI. According to national news agency PTI the teams are expected to leave for the UAE by August 20.
As reported by SportzFront earlier, the teams will not be required to serve a longer quarantine on their arrival in the Emirates. They will just have to secure COVID-19 negative certificates prior to departure and undergo the test again on arrival in the UAE.
Once their report in the UAE is confirmed as negative the players will be free to train.
The BCCI is also engaged in preliminary talks with airlines in the UAE to make travel arrangements.
Also read: BCCI initiates talks for logistics to stage IPL 2020 in UAE
The BCCI also has the obligation of ensuring that the Virat Kohli-led Team India reaches Australia in time for the four-Test series. The team will also have to serve the two-week isolation period Down Under before starting preparations for the first Test, scheduled to start from December 3.