The Indian Premier League, richest and most popular domestic cricket tournament in the world, will stage its 13th edition from September 19 to November 8 in the United Arab Emirates.
The disclosure by none less than Brajesh Patel, chairman of the IPL governing council to a popular cricket web portal hints at the Board of Control for Cricket India working hard behind the scenes to somehow make the event happen, rather than let it fall victim to the global pandemic.
The dates and venues have been announced without the formal approval from either of the governments involved, India and UAE. Even the IPL governing council has yet to formally approve of the change, which also needs the go-ahead of the BCCI apex council.
So why the tearing hurry?
First things first, BCCI wanted to to ensure that once the International Cricket Council announced the cancellation of the T20 World Cup scheduled to be played in Australian during the same period, there was no bilateral series announced by the members board. It ensures that the best players from around the would be available to feature in the IPL without a hitch.
Of course, logistics need to be worked out given the current restrictions placed on international travel due to the unique conditions prevailing all over.
Given the muted reaction from boards and franchises, it appears that the BCCI powers that be ... president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah ... did not spare any effort in working the back channels to ensure that things were in place before the ICC announcement. All this when their own position hangs in balance, awaiting the nod from Supreme Court to the amendments to the BCCI constitution that would let them stay in office for their full three-year terms. Added to that is the fact the CEO Rahul Johri had already put in his papers and so has general manager (cricket operations) Saba Karim.
In fact, ICC's delay in the calling off the Australia event almost looks like buying time for BCCI to get its act together and prepare the ground for the IPL to rush in and fill the void in the world cricket calendar.
Holding the event outside of India hikes costs all round. Not only to do franchisees and broadcaster must spend more in the UAE but there are fairly large savings too! TV needs only a single crew since there are only two venues. Plus there will be only a handful of double-headers which can easily be staged at a same ground itself. Air-travel is not required by broadcasters and franchisees within UAE, and there are plenty of practice / training facilities available to keep the players in shape.
For UAE, of course, it will be a new experience altogether. Preparing pitches that last the rigour for more than 50 days despite the tough conditions, especially given that matches are most likely to have an early evening start with Indian prime time viewing in mind.
All in all it is indeed a masterstroke by BCCI to ensure that it had everything in place to jump in when the opportunity presented itself.
IPL is not merely about money any longer. Its about BCCI showing its clout to the cricket world and it has done that in no uncertain terms.
The disclosure by none less than Brajesh Patel, chairman of the IPL governing council to a popular cricket web portal hints at the Board of Control for Cricket India working hard behind the scenes to somehow make the event happen, rather than let it fall victim to the global pandemic.
The dates and venues have been announced without the formal approval from either of the governments involved, India and UAE. Even the IPL governing council has yet to formally approve of the change, which also needs the go-ahead of the BCCI apex council.
So why the tearing hurry?
First things first, BCCI wanted to to ensure that once the International Cricket Council announced the cancellation of the T20 World Cup scheduled to be played in Australian during the same period, there was no bilateral series announced by the members board. It ensures that the best players from around the would be available to feature in the IPL without a hitch.
Of course, logistics need to be worked out given the current restrictions placed on international travel due to the unique conditions prevailing all over.
Given the muted reaction from boards and franchises, it appears that the BCCI powers that be ... president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah ... did not spare any effort in working the back channels to ensure that things were in place before the ICC announcement. All this when their own position hangs in balance, awaiting the nod from Supreme Court to the amendments to the BCCI constitution that would let them stay in office for their full three-year terms. Added to that is the fact the CEO Rahul Johri had already put in his papers and so has general manager (cricket operations) Saba Karim.
In fact, ICC's delay in the calling off the Australia event almost looks like buying time for BCCI to get its act together and prepare the ground for the IPL to rush in and fill the void in the world cricket calendar.
Holding the event outside of India hikes costs all round. Not only to do franchisees and broadcaster must spend more in the UAE but there are fairly large savings too! TV needs only a single crew since there are only two venues. Plus there will be only a handful of double-headers which can easily be staged at a same ground itself. Air-travel is not required by broadcasters and franchisees within UAE, and there are plenty of practice / training facilities available to keep the players in shape.
For UAE, of course, it will be a new experience altogether. Preparing pitches that last the rigour for more than 50 days despite the tough conditions, especially given that matches are most likely to have an early evening start with Indian prime time viewing in mind.
All in all it is indeed a masterstroke by BCCI to ensure that it had everything in place to jump in when the opportunity presented itself.
IPL is not merely about money any longer. Its about BCCI showing its clout to the cricket world and it has done that in no uncertain terms.
No comments:
Post a Comment