IPL 2020 in Dubai? BCCI not ruling out India as host yet

Former Indian cricketer-turned commentator Atul Wassan, a day earlier, had claimed that some of the Indian cricketers including captain Virat Kohli had suggested having the IPL in Dubai to avoid unnecessary crisscross travel within India at the time of the coronavirus pandemic.

However, a BCCI source said hosting the richest T20 league isn’t completely ruled out at home either.

With major cities like Mumbai and Delhi not in the fray to host IPL games this year, BCCI is still open to staging the event in Green Zones across the country. However, travelling across the country is something, which the board is also taking into account and, therefore, an option like hosting IPL in Dubai isn’t completely ruled out also.

Sources said that BCCI is yet to get a go-ahead signal from the government with an updated health circular to zero down on the window for IPL. But all efforts are made to ensure IPL is on course.

IPL on course for 2020 start

“IPL is surely happening this year. The board is in the process of finding out the best possible environment for the event to take place,” a top BCCI official assured Sportskeeda.

Meanwhile, the teams are happy that IPL would at least happen at some point of the year and it does not matter whether it happens at home or in Dubai.

“The good news is that IPL is happening and that is all every team wants. We are prepared for the event in a safer environment for sure,” an ecstatic team official added.

Earlier, Sportskeeda reported on how IPL would be played eventually towards the end of monsoon and starting of autumn months. It was also reported by this website on how World T20 could be called off and IPL would get a longer window.

“These are early days to talks about the schedule. The good thing is that IPL was not called off indefinitely and now the sentiment is that the event is going to happen at some point of the year,” the BCCI source said.