The fans and the players themselves are surely excited to know that this year’s Indian Premier League or the IPL is pushing through. IPL 13 is scheduled to take place on September 19 of this year. Its finals are also set to be played on November 10, 2020.
The IPL’s 13th season will be played in the UAE this year. This season was initially set to be played in March to May of this year, but it had to be canceled because of the pandemic. The dates for the IPL 2020 UAE was recently announced by the Board of Control for Cricket in India or BCCI.
Many people expressed their happiness about this, including Royal Challengers Banglaore Spinner Yuzvendra Chahal who also recently tweeted about this. He said on his tweet, “The wait is over. Let’s roar. #IPL 2020.” The tweet is shared with a photo of him and Virat Kohli’s reaction after taking a wicket in a match.
Now, there will be changes in this year’s season, just like how it is for the other sports leagues that are now back on. The EPL, for example, continued the rest of its season behind closed doors and this is also going to be the case for the IPL. Likely, the start of the season will not allow a live audience.
This could change, however, based on the medical advice that the UAE government will have. With that said, it is the UAE government that will determine whether it is already safe to allow a limited number of fans to watch the matches live.
For now, the BCCI is already working with different agencies like the Emirates Cricket Board or the ECB, the UAR authorities, and even medical experts to determine the best way to execute the IPL matches. Even if it is likely that this season will start behind closed doors, the guidelines can still be changed. The IPL will mainly depend on the guidelines issued by the local health agencies, however.
For the players, they will be allowed to travel to the UAE with their families if their franchises would permit it. However, many players are expressing that they would rather not travel with their families, especially the ones with younger children. However, for players who do decide to bring families with them, no family member will be allowed to travel on the same vehicle where the players and the staff of the team will be.
Of course, testing will also be essential to make the IPL happen. Even before everyone involved in the IPL gets to the UAE, multiple tests will have to be done. A few franchises may have to bring up to 60 people with them. This number already includes the medical teams for the daily health check-ups.
It is a must that testing will be done by the players every fifth day. A senior BCCI official spoke about this and said, “The BCCI has said every fifth day testing in UAE but if franchises want, they can ramp up the rate. AS we have said earlier, any upgrade on the SOP is welcome. However, there is very little chance of the quarantine period getting reduced from the mandatory number of days, which is six.”
A senior franchise official talked about the conditions that they have when it comes to testing. The official said, “It’s always good if they have a PCR test was done and land with a negative report. Then they can have two teats done 24 hours apart as the BCCO SOP mentions before we fly to the UAE.”
The franchises will also have to take care of the accommodations of the people they will be bringing. Based on recent reports, one franchise will be booking a resort. There is also a franchise that might rent a sprawling property in Abu Dhabi. It is said that this franchise will hire the staff, security, and even the chef that will be working in this property as well.
Another franchise is also said to be booking a hotel in Abu Dhabi solely because they consider this hotel as the team’s lucky base because of the 2014 IPL edition. Even if these franchises could take as much as 60 or even more than 60 people with them, the number of players will only be restricted to 24. It is the number of support staff that the BCCI is not planning to put a cap on.