Jay Shah, BCCI secretary explained the reason behind the board’s decision to move the remainder of the IPL 2021 season to the UAE.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday confirmed that the remainder of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 season will be played in the UAE later this year.
Jay Shah Insists IPL 2021 Was Moved To The UAE Only Due To Weather Restrictions As IPL Can’t Be Held In India During Monsoon Season
IPL 2021 had to be suspended indefinitely earlier this month after COVID-19 cases were detected in the camps of four teams. While the first phase of the tournament was played in India, BCCI has now decided to move the rest of the matches to UAE.
BCCI secretary Jay Shah explained the reason behind shifting the tournament to UAE from India. He said the decision was taken due to weather restrictions and not the COVID-19 situation in the country.
While daily fresh cases have gone down significantly, India continues to record lakhs of new COVID-19 cases each day. However, Jay Shah said due to the heavy amount of rainfall in the country during September it was decided not to host the tournament in India.
“See we took this decision to conduct IPL in the UAE because it will be monsoon here and it will not be feasible to hold matches here in September and that is why we are taking IPL to the UAE,” Jay Shah told ANI.
“We are moving IPL to the UAE only due to weather restrictions as we cannot hold IPL here at the time of monsoon. How can we hold IPL in September in Mumbai or Ahmedabad or any other venues at the time of monsoon? It doesn’t make any sense,” he added.
The decision was taken in BCCI’s Special General Meeting (SGM) on Saturday. As reported earlier, the BCCI has already had an informal agreement with the Emirates Cricket Board. The remainder of IPL 2021 has been moved to the UAE and BCCI has earmarked a window in September and October this year to conduct the matches.
The formal decision was taken on Saturday (May 29) to move the remainder of IPL 2021 to the UAE – in view of the bad weather (monsoon) in India around September-October, when it wants to host the remaining 31 IPL games.
Jay Shah: BCCI Will Seek Time From ICC And Decide Whether The T20I World Cup Will Be Staged In India Or Not
Apart from IPL 2021, the fate of T20 World Cup 2021 was also discussed in the meeting with the BCCI deciding to seek more time from the ICC to conduct the tournament in India. BCCI is keen on staging the showpiece event in India but is aware of the challenges possessed by COVID-19.
“And as far as the T20 World Cup is concerned, we will seek time from ICC and decide later. As of now, we are in the mind frame of holding tournaments in the safe zone and we will see how the situation is in the upcoming days. The only thing I can say for now is to seek time from ICC and decide accordingly,” Shah said.
The T20 World Cup was expected to get underway in the third week of October this year, however, the tournament can be postponed for a late start if BCCI manages to get an extension from the ICC.