Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) Vice President Rajeev Shukla on Saturday confirmed that the second half of the 14th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will be played in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The decision was taken at the crucial Special General Meeting (SGM) on Saturday that was also attended by BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah.
This year’s IPL was suspended indefinitely due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. However, a BCCI official later said that the remaining part of the tournament would be played in the UAE in the September-October window.
Suspense over participation of foreign players
Though it has been confirmed that the remaining part of the IPL 2021 will be played in the UAE, the suspense over the participations of foreign players in the second half of the tournament still continues.
BCCI sources, quoted by ANI, said that the board will speak to the foreign boards to decide on the availability of the foreign players. The sources said that Australian players will stay unavailable but the questions over the availability of the England and New Zealand players still remain.
Here it is noteworthy to mention that England and Wales Cricket Board’s managing director Ashley Giles earlier this week said that English players will unlikely take part in the second half of the tournament because of the T20I World Cup and the Ashes.
“We are going to have to give some of these guys a break at some point. But the intention of giving guys a break for, say, Bangladesh, wouldn’t be for them to go and play cricket elsewhere. We have to manage our schedule now, so we get our guys arriving in the best shape possible for the T20 World Cup and the Ashes,” Giles had said in an event.
