“Where will be IPL 2021 hosted?” in UAE or in India, the question gets into talk once the BCCI announced the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021 schedule. Instead in India IPL 2020 has hosted by UAE owing to the COVID-19 issue.
While everyone expects the IPL 2021 to be hosted at home(India) the pandemic has not yet settled to confirm the announcement. In this peculiar situation, BCCI announced the domestic Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021 schedule. This move expects the fans to believe that BCCI will host the IPL 2021 in India.
Where will be IPL 2021 hosted?
As of everyone BCCI too wants to hold the IPL 2021 in India. There is no clarity whether the Indian Premier League in 2021 will be held in India or the United Arab Emirates.
Now, a news report in the Mumbai Mirror says that the IPL being held in India will depend largely on how the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament pans out. “How we approach the next IPL is dependent on how the Mushtaq Ali plays out,” a BCCI member told the Mumbai Mirror.
IPL 2021 Venue
The IPL Governing Council discussed the possibilities of limited venues in its first meeting on Monday.
“The MoU with the Emirates Cricket Board has been signed for long-term so shifting it to UAE like in 2020 won’t be too much of a hassle,” revealed a BCCI insider.
“It will be best to wait for a month more and judge the possible impact of the pandemic on the IPL.”
The Governing Council is understood to have factored in the possibility of restricting the IPL venues in India, instead of allotting games to the base city of every franchise.
“Yes, that’s something that will need to be looked at. Four or five at the most, ideally to maintain bio-secure bubbles, but the franchises will have to be taken into confidence for that,” added the source.
The next GC meeting will see the venue for the tournament decided but as of now the board are adopting a wait and watch approach as they want to see how the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy happens.
The preparation for the tournament has already started with teams reaching their respective venues. The league stage will get underway on January 10 at six different venues – Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Baroda, Indore, and Chennai.
The knockout stage of the tournament will take place in Ahmedabad. The final is on January 31.
IPL 2021 Auction Date
IPL 2021 expects to start with a Mega Auction if the tournament is played with a set of 10 franchises. Post the BCCI AGM, the board confirms that IPL 2021 will be held as usual with the set of 8 teams.
So the execution of mega auction seems to be in its least possible. The franchises may be asked to confirm retained players by January 21 and a trading window may continue till the end of the month. The IPL 2021 Player’s Auction will be scheduled around February 10.
The BCCI is expected to formally announce the timelines later this week, once president Sourav Ganguly is discharged from the hospital.
