MUMBAI: The Indian Premier League will kick off in the UAE from the last week of September, SportzPower can confirm, with the announcement to be made once the International Cricket Council (ICC) makes it official that the T20 World Cup, scheduled to be held in Australia in October-November, will not happen this year.
As for Union government clearances, with BCCI secretary Jay Shah being the son of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal, the brother of Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur, that the Centre is on the same page on this matter is a given.
BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and Shah apprised the members at the Apex Council meeting, held via video conferencing, on Friday. Aside from the Apex Council members, also present at the meeting were executives representing each of the eight franchises as well as IPL host broadcaster Disney-Star.
Disney-Star and the franchises are all on board with the plan that has been laid out, a reliable source who was in on the proceedings confirmed to this website.
What has given Team Uday Shankar, president The Walt Disney Company Asia Pacific, and chairman Star India and The Walt Disney Company India, a massive boost in confidence is the huge viewership that Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN), host broadcaster in the Indian subcontinent for the ongoing Test series between England and the West Indies, has been garnering.
If a Test series happening in England can draw see such high viewership numbers, that the IPL could well deliver historic ratings is definitely NOT a pie-in-the-sky fantasy.
Now on to logistics. Facilities that were being built (and are being built) for the Expo 2020 (World Expo that was originally scheduled to be hosted by Dubai from October 20 but postponed to 2021) will be ready and available for use by the teams and their crew. SportzPower has been reliably informed that each team will have its own hotel from where it will be operating in a bubble environment for players and support staff). The postponement of Expo 2020 also means that hotels, which otherwise would have had severe occupancy challenges, are available at massively competitive rates that work in the favour of the teams and their respective managements.
And what of the fans? The plan is for the IPL NOT to be held behind closed doors, SportzPower has been given to understand. UAE safety guidelines will be STRICTLY followed with fans having to wear masks and maintain social distance in-stadia. Stadiums will be fully sanitised and will likely have occupancy at 50 per cent capacity or less, is what this website has been told.
What needs noting is that all of this IS possible in the UAE and it is this that will also ensure that no international player will have any qualms about being a part of the world’s biggest and richest annual cricket extravaganza.
POSTSCRIPT: A COVID created branding opportunity that can be leveraged by the franchises beyond the traditional merchandise is around the masks. Think of the Whistle Podu Army (Chennai Super Kings Fan Club) members in the stadium not just in the distictive CSK colours, but also wearing branded masks. It will make for quite a sight, what say?
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