IPL 2020: GC wants teams to travel by 20th August
The Governing Council (GC) of the Indian Premier League decided to ask the franchises and other stakeholders to postpone their travel to the UAE by about a week — likely to set the Covid-19 protocols in place for this year’s competition — and only travel by 20th August.
The GC also took a call to delay the final of the tournament from 8th to 10th November to give India broadcasters an additional two days in the Diwali week and advance the start of the evening games from 8pm (IST) to 7.30pm (IST), which means the match will start at 6pm in the UAE.
In doing so, the IPL has broken away from its tradition of hosting the final match on Sunday. Those who track different perspectives say “not having the final on the weekend does not matter, because it’s the Diwali week.”
The key focus of the discussion between GC members on Sunday was to “request” stakeholders of the IPL to fly to the UAE only on 20th August. Most franchises were initially intended to fly in the second week of August – between 10th and 15th – and had already begun work on travel and accommodation during those dates .
The view of GC may be that it needs to enforce the Covid protocols in place, discuss these protocols in depth with the stakeholders of the league, and then coordinate with the government of UAE and the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) before travel can begin. The majority of franchises agreed with the decision.
