India – South Africa Series Off As BCCI Advances IPL 2020’s Starting Date By A Week
Jul 25, 2020 at 9:06 AM
After a lot of speculations, the window for this year’s IPL has been finally confirmed. Brijesh Patel, chairman of IPL governing council, confirmed on Friday that IPL 2020 will take place between September 19 and November 8 or 10. The IPL will comprise 60 matches and will be played over 51 days (in case final is on November 8).
Earlier reports suggested that the tournament would be played between September 26 – November 8. However, Patel confirmed that the starting date of the league has been advanced by a week. UAE looks set to be the venue for the tournament as BCCI awaits to receive the permission from the government for conducting IPL 2020 outside the country.
Earlier this week Patel had said that the permission would come and had confirmed Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah would be the three main venues for the tournament. It is now just a matter of time before the BCCI gets the green light from the government to shift the entire tournament to UAE.
No India-South Africa series:
Earlier this week reports suggested that Team India and South Africa might play a three-match T20I series ahead of the IPL. Mumbai Mirror reported that few stakeholders of the BCCI wanted India to play a short series against South Africa.
Both the teams were scheduled to play three T20I games in August although the series was not part of the original Future Tours Program. However, the series is now off after BCCI’s decision to advance the IPL’s starting date by a week. Previously, the window for IPL 2020 was September 26 – November 8.
According to a report in The Times of India, the advancement of the league’s starting date has put an end to all speculation surrounding the three-match white-ball series that was being planned against South Africa.
The report also stated that the IPL franchises are clear in their demand that they would like their players to assemble a minimum of three weeks before the start of the tournament and should the IPL entourage fly to the UAE even by mid-August, the players will always keep running short on time to catch-up after having played no cricket for close to six months.