The Indian Premier League will be played in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the second time since 2014 after the Indian government gave the BCCI its formal nod to stage the 13th edition of the league in the Middle East Nation from September 19 to November 10.

The official green signal has got all interested stakeholders neck deep in work and the eight franchises to initiate as well as complete the protocols and procedures set down by the BCCI regarding the quarantine and testing of their players before flying out to Dubai.

The Indian cricket board is also a busy bee at the moment desperately looking at a new title sponsor after ending their sponsorship agreement with Chinese firm Vivo for the upcoming season.

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With the Indian board having their hands full in fine tuning the modalities of the IPL ahead of the 13th edition, the COVID-19 pandemic has added to their woes in meeting stringent deadlines. Paucity of time could possibly lead to the mega auction for the 2021 edition of the league being scrapped

As per a report in the The Times of India, the BCCI is planning to let go of the auction given there won't be much time left for the teams to
strategize their plans for rebuilding their squads ahead of the auction. If  this turns out to be the eventual scenario, then all eight franchises would be expected to continue with their current squads in the 2021 edition of the league.

"What's the point in doing a mega auction now and not have enough time to plan it properly? IPL might as well go ahead and finish the 2021 edition of the tournament and then see how it wants to go about," a source told TOI.

The thirteenth edition which has already got postponed by almost six months due to the pandemic will witness the finals being played on November 10. This will leave very less time for the eight franchises to rebuild their squads from scratch for the 2021 season, which could have garnered a lot of interest – an event that would have grabbed plenty of eyeballs.

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The franchises also agree with the idea of no IPL auction considering the gap between IPL 2020 and the start of IPL 2021 is around four and a half months. The franchises ideally need 3-4 months to get their strategies in place for a mega auction.

Meanwhile, all the eight IPL franchises are set to fly out to the UAE after August 20 for the upcoming season, with many teams already starting to assemble before flying out of India. The BCCI has already issues the SOPs to all the franchise with the tournament all set to commence from September 19.