MUMBAI: Acting on expected lines, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), at its special general meeting (SGM) on Saturday, confirmed that the remaining matches of the Indian Premier League 2021 season would be held in the United Arab Emirates in the “months of September-October”.
There was no official word on which dates in the months of September-October had been slotted to hold the 31 matches of the IPL that were still to be played, when the world’s richest annual tournament was suspended.
It was further decided at the SGM that BCCI office bearers would “seek an extension of time from the ICC to take an appropriate call on the hosting of ICC T20 World Cup 2021”. The men’s T20 World Cup is scheduled to be held in India from October 18, running through to November 14.
It bears noting that the ICC had scheduled a meeting on June 1 to decide on the matter, but with the world’s real cricket power centre “proposing” that it be given time till the first week of July to take a final call, the game’s global governing body will perforce have to “dispose”.
That the BCCI can even consider exploring “all possibilities” to host the World T20 in India when the country is still a very long way away from bringing the the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic under control beggars belief but it is what it is.
Coming back to the IPL, with the England and Wales Cricket Board having already stated that it will NOT release its players for the IPL remainder, and Cricket Australia yet to make public its official position on the matter, there remains the question of which foreign players will be available to take part.
Cricbuzz reports that the BCCI has decided that the franchises will be told to take replacements, both from India and overseas, to refurbish their line-ups and that a meeting with the IPL franchises will happen at some stage.
