UAE has offered to host the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) which has now been indefinitely suspended by the BCCI due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. However, the BCCI officials are yet to decide their next move with international travelling is on hold due to COVID-19 Pandemic.
The 2020 IPL edition was slated to start from March 29 but with the coronavirus outbreak it was first deferred till April 15 and now with the extension of nationwide lockdown in India, it has been indefinitely suspended.
Nothing we can decide at this stage – Dhamal On IPL
The UAE is no stranger to hosting the IPL, having arranged 20 matches in 2014 to avoid date clashes with the general elections in India. However, it is unlikely that BCCI will decide on it in the near future with the Virus outbreak in the country.
“The UAE has offered to host the IPL if we want them to. But right now when there is no international travel, there is no question of taking a call on that,” said BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal.
“The health and security of players and all participants is our priority. At the moment, the entire world travel has come to a standstill, so there is nothing we can decide at this stage,” he said.
On two occasions in the past, the IPL has been shifted out of India. The 2009 edition of the IPL had been moved to South Africa due to Lok Sabha elections. In 2014, the UAE had hosted the first two weeks of IPL because of the general assembly polls.
Well, it would be interesting to see how things would turn out. Recently, Sri Lanka Cricket Board also expressed their interest in hosting IPL 2020 if required. For now, none of the BCCI officials has given any report of playing IPL 2020 either in India or in any other country.
