The Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council is likely to meet on August 2 to finalise the schedule of the tournament and other important arrangements to host the tournament in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) later this year.

“We are having the governing council meeting on 2nd of August and major issues related to the league will be discussed in this meeting,” a BCCI source privy to the development was quoted as saying by ANI.

The IPL 2020, which was scheduled to be played from March 29 this year, was earlier postponed to April 15 before it was suspended indefinitely due to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, after the International Cricket Council (ICC) formally announced the postponement of the T20 World Cup, the BCCI capitalised on the opportunity to stage the IPL during the time the T20 World Cup was dated to take place.

Apart from deciding the schedule, the governing council meeting will discuss the logistical issues including the standard operating procedures (SOP) to create quarantine facilities, bio-secured training facilities and the travelling arrangements of the players, match officials and others.

The logistics and operations team from the BCCI will also be travelling to the three UAE venues – Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Dubai – to check if the preparations there. If the UAE airlines don’t start operations then all will fall back on chartered planes.

Earlier, the Governing Council chairman Brijesh Patel had confirmed that the 2020 edition of the IPL will be played from September 19 to November 8. He further said that the same has been communicated to the franchises and other stakeholders as well.

“We have had a discussion and we are looking at the September 19 to November 8 window for this edition of the league. We have informed the franchise about the same,” IANS quoted Patel as saying.

Meanwhile, on Monday the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed that they had received the official ‘Letter of Intent’ from the BCCI to host the cash-rich tournament for the second time. The UAE had earlier staged the tournament in 2014.

“We have received the (official) letter and now wait on the decision from the Indian Government which will ink the final deal,” ECB Secretary General Mubashshir Usmani was quoted as saying in the ECB statement.