Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

It is expected that the BCCI is in the mood to sign an agreement with the Emirates Cricket Board as India looks forward to hosting England in UAE this winter. While the agreement is restricted only to the present year’s IPL, which begins today in Abu Dhabi, ESPNcricinfo understands there are brief discussions during which the likelihood of India hosting England, also as next year’s IPL, within the UAE has been raised.

It has also been confirmed through a tweet from the secretary of BCCI Jay Shah that there has already been an agreement to boost and secure the cricketing ties between the two countries. .Shah signed the agreement at a gathering with ECB vice-chairman Khalid Al Zarooni. Saurav Ganguly and Arun Dhumal were also present in the meeting being the BCCI president and board treasurer. Shah didn’t spell out details of what the agreement entailed, but a senior BCCI official told ESPNcricinfo that it had been specific to the 2020 IPL.

This is the first time that the entire season fo Ipl will be played outside India due to the difficult pandemic situation and the season will be completed in the UAE. With over five million cases as of Friday, it’s second only to the USA in terms of the number of infections and has experienced a serious spike in numbers over the last fortnight. It is against this backdrop that brief and preliminary discussions have taken place between the 2 boards, BCCI believes to use the venues in UAE for the series which can be scheduled for Jan-Feb of the coming year.

In the original FTP, the white-ball leg of the tour was scheduled for October this year, before India toured Australia then returned to host the five Tests against England from January. The white-ball leg was officially postponed last month, and it’s expected that they’re going to be played alongside the Tests now. The possibility of a shift to the UAE emerged as early as in August, but the probabilities of it happening would seem to possess increased after the newest update.

Depending on things of the pandemic in India next year, it might be that next year’s IPL is additionally hosted within the UAE.

The agreement between the 2 boards marks a big moment in their relationship. For an extended time within the 2000s, after the primary wave of match-fixing blighted the sport, India refused to play within the UAE, aside from a two-match ODI series with Pakistan in 2006 in Abu Dhabi. But that approach has changed in recent years. The ice was broken with a partial staging of the 2014 IPL within the UAE before the BCCI relocated the 2018 Asia Cup to the country. The Under-19 team also played within the 2014 World Cup within the UAE.

As we already that Pakistan has considered UAE as their home venue for more than a decade now, however they are taking back cricket to Pakistan recently. The UAE has proved its worth to showcase itself as a top-flight venue of choice, especially from the beginning of the pandemic. At that point, the impact of Covid-19 was far less severe within the UAE than other countries, and though that largely continues to be the case, there has been a rise in recent weeks. Last week the health ministry announced just over a thousand new cases, the very best number of infections since the pandemic began.

By Salem Bin Amer

Engineer, Badminton player, Fitness enthusiast and a full-time Content writer.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *