(Image source from: insidesport.co)

The postponed edition of IPL premier league will be held in UAE and the board is awaiting a green signal from the government to take IPL out of India.

Indians are all set to defend their trophy at a different venue this time due to COVID-19 crisis. The 2020 IPL will be played between September 19 and November 10 as confirmed by IPL chairman Brijesh Patel.

The final could be played on November 8 and November 10 and this decision will be taken soon by the board members.

Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah will be the three main venues for the conduct of the tournament.

The chairman has said that the decision has been taken by the board members earlier yesterday but has not confirmed yet if the Governing Council meeting scheduled to be held this weekend will happen as per schedule.

IPL Chairman Brijesh Patel has said that though it has been decided by the board members to conduct the tournament from September 19, they still have to get a green signal from the government to proceed further.

The key points along with the schedule with the contours of what a biosecure bubble will look like would be finalized and communicated to the franchises soon. Till now the franchises have only been informed about the dates.

One major advantage of having the IPL tournament to be scheduled in UAE is that the quarantine period would be less relaxed.

At present, anyone who travels to UAE must be tested negative for coronavirus before flying and also has to take a test upon landing. If the person is tested negative in both the tests, then there’s no quarantine period.

However, if a person boards the flight without taking the test, he/she must be under quarantine for 14 days.

The IPL 2020 will comprise 60 matches and would be played in a span of 51 days. It is likely that double headers would remain minimal in UAE.

It is also expected that the commencement of the matches would be at 7:30 pm IST. It remains to be seen if IPL would stick to evening matches despite reservations from host broadcaster Star Sports.

With the final being speculated on November 8 or 10, the Indian players will get enough time to quarantine for two weeks in Australia for the test series which are scheduled to be held from December 3 in Brisbane.

By Gayatri Yellayi