IPL Governing Council meeting on 2 August to finalize the tournament schedule and SOPs
The probability of bio-bubble and Indian Premier League fixtures will be decided when the Governing Council of the tournament meet on 2 August.
Earlier, the meeting was agreed to be held on 1 August, but the Chairman of the Governing Council, Brijesh Patel, told the media on Tuesday that the meeting will now take place on Sunday. Top officials and BCCI office-bearers are likely to attend.
Patel said during the interview that the meeting will take place on 2 August, and the council will discuss all the requisite arrangements. Besides that, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) also will be discussed with the 8 franchises and other stakeholders, and finalized all the decisions. He mentioned that they will analyze and discuss all the possibilities.
There is a possibility that chartered flights will be used to fly out the players and the stakeholders to the Emirates. And, every franchise may also be asked to keep its contingent limited to 35-40 people.
However, Patel pointed out that the franchises would have to plan their travel arrangements like previous editions. It is understood that the Board will work with ECB to look into the possibilities of booking hotels at a discounted price.
He explained further to the media, “The franchises will have to take care of their travel plans. It’s up to them to decide how they want to go ahead.”
Although the ECB is optimistic about fan entry, efforts are under going to allow ‘limited entry’ for touring media. But all that will depend on the UAE government’s decision.
Patel agreed that health and safety measures would be of utmost importance, he said they are going to discuss the bio-bubble issue and see how they can go ahead.
It has also been reported that the squads will be based in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and will only fly to Sharjah on the matchdays. But the BCCI officials declined to reveal details, mentioning that everything would be decided in the upcoming council meeting.
BCCI is optimistic that it will have all the approvals later this week, even as it awaits a go-ahead from the Government. A BCCI official revealed that they got plans in place and things will ease out once they get the approval from the government.
However, the franchises are waiting for more clarification, as they feel that there is not much time left to start the planning and preparation. There is a possibility that by the second week of August, most of the Indian players will directly join their respective franchises in the Emirates. A top franchise boss expressed he thought that they need to prepare a lot of things. The teams have to do the recce and they will start the process once they hear from the Board.
