The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly took a tour of the Sharjah Cricket Stadium which is one of the three venues of the upcoming of edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Ganguly, who was accompanied by some of the local dignitaries and former IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla, among others, visited the stadium to check if everything was in order ahead of the 13th season of the IPL.
The BCCI president was reportedly satisfied with the arrangement made by the local organisers. Sharing a few pictures from his inspection on Instagram, Ganguly wrote, “Famous Sharjah stadium all set to host IPL 2020.”
Meanwhile, Ganguly, along with Brijesh Patel, had flown to Dubai last week to attend the inauguration of the IPL there. According to the standard operating procedures (SOP) set by the BCCI and IPL Governning Council, Ganguly and Patel had to spend six days in quarantine before venturing out.
All the eight franchises have reached the United Arab Emirates and have begun training. There was a little hiccup as well when 13, members of the Chennai Super (CSK) squad were tested positive for COVID-19.
The 2020 season of the IPL will be played for 53 days from September 19 to November 10 across three venues in the UAE — Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Dubai.
The final match will be played on a Tuesday, to make it the first-ever IPL to have its final on a weekday. The matches this season will also start 30 minutes before their original time of 4 PM and 8 PM.
The IPL 2020, which was scheduled to be played from March 29 this year, was earlier postponed to April 15 before it was suspended again 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.
But with the coronavirus situation escalating in India with each passing day, the Indian board decided to move the tournament out of the country. It is believed, UAE was chosen keeping in mind their prior experience of hosting a limited part of the tournament in 2014.