(Image source from: etimg.etb2bimg.com)

The BCCI has put forward a proposal of 2 locations for the conduction of IPL 2020, one is in Maharashtra India and the other is in Dubai. There have been a lot of speculations over the T20 league on social media and fans have already started makes memes.

The 13th edition of IPL 2020 which was supposed to be happening in the month of May 2020 has been getting postponed due to the current pandemic called coronavirus. There has not been any official statement made by the BCCI regarding the same.

However discussions on the commencement of the T20 leaguehave been happening since the month of March. There has been suddenly a lot of speculation on social media platforms whether it is going to start from 26th of December. All of this began with a new report, which suggested that there are at least 80% chances of the Indian premiere league tournament 2020 to be held in United Arab Emirates and that the matches are going to start from the 26th of September.

The Indian cricket fans could not keep calm literally and started spreading rumours that the dates have been finalized, which is still far from the truth. The BCCI has been patiently waiting for the International Cricket Council ICC to make a decision on the T20 world cup which was supposed to happen in 2020 and then later decide the fate of IPL 2020.

There was a BCCI Apex council meeting on Friday where the IPL 13th editions discussion took place. The prime focus was the venue of the IPL 2020. In the meeting there were two locations which were finalized internal, one is Maharashtra in India and the other is UAE, though the final call on the venue of the tournament will be taken after the government discussion and consultation.

The meeting also spoke about the training camp and maybe Ahmedabad’s Motera Stadium is on the list as it is the world’s largest cricket stadium and also has high quality accommodation which is the need of the hour due to the Covid-19 situation.

The BCCI decided on Maharashtra and UAE because, Maharashtra has multiple venues in Pune as well as Mumbai and that could be a plus point. UAE was decided as it is one of the countries that has controlled the spread of virus and can be a favorable host rather than any other overseas options.

Maharashtra has rising coronavirus cases and UAE doesn’t, so it seems like UAE is a safer option for the venue to host IPL 2020.

BCCI is looking for government’s consultation on the matter, but looks like they are pretty sure the government is going to choose UAE as Franchise official of IPL have been seen preparing and planning the stay and guidelines for UAE. One franchise office also mentioned that they are busy preparing for the tournament in UAE and are planning out the logistics and also accommodations like the hotels they are going to stay in. the franchise official was also seen mentioning that they have certain inputs which lean towards UAE as the host of IPL 2020 and that they are being smart by planning ahead of time. This process is not going to be simple as there will be a lot of preliminary steps due to the Covid-29 situation like isolation in both the countries, tests, hygiene related tools and much more.

“You need to be smart and plan early. We have been given the required inputs and are planning accordingly. We have actually decided on the hotel we wish to stay at in Abu Dhabi and how exactly we will go through the process of flying in and going through the necessary quarantine period once in UAE. We will obviously need to brush up with the then health guidelines of the country,” the official said.

The officials are also planning on isolation wards in India and having Covid-19 tests before leaving India as travelling while having Covid-19 is not safe for anyone and it might risk the fact of infecting others.

The officials also mentioned about the travel plans as most of the teams from all over the world who will be coming to play at IPL 2020 are arranging for chartered planes as India has no international travel yet. The franchises are looking out for safety of the players as well as the crew by taking all necessary precautions.

Well, all of this will be a hoax, if the government is not going to finalize on UAE as the venue for IPL 2020.

By Deepika Agarwal