It's Official! IPL 2021 Moved To UAE: BCCI Vice-President Rajeev Shukla

Earlier, sources stated that the remaining IPL 2021 matches will be held in Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai from September 18 or 19, right after the end of the England vs India 5-match Test series.

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IPL 2021: The remaining Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 matches will be held in the United Arab Emirates, news agency ANI reported Vice-President BCCI Rajeev Shukla as saying. The tournament dates are yet to be finalised.

Besides this, a source told ANI, BCCI will go ahead with organising the IPL in UAE with an aim to have a 25-day window for the completion of the 14th edition of the league.

Earlier, sources reported that the remaining IPL 2021 matches will be held in Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai from September 18 or 19, right after the end of the England vs India 5-match Test series. The news was reported by ABP Group's The Telegraph.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) held the virtual Special General Meeting (SGM) on Saturday and the resumption of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the hosting of the T20 World Cup was discussed there.

"While the Australian players may be available, there are some questions over the availability of the England and New Zealand players, we will see how that works out. We are looking at a 25-day window and that is on," ANI quoted a source as saying.

With regards to the T20 World Cup, the source informed it was unanimously decided that with more than 4 months remaining for the event, BCCI will seek time till the end of June or the beginning of July to take a call on hosting the tournament.

There are 31 remaining matches in the IPL 2021. It will be the first time that the IPL will be held in UAE for two consecutive years. 

“The Indian and England cricketers can directly fly into Dubai from England. Since it will be a transfer within the bio-security bubble, players can participate without going through the quarantine period. In any case, the number of Covid-19 positive cases has gone down drastically in Dubai and the city has been opening up its facilities,” sources earlier told The Telegraph.

“The UAE has been very stringent on compliance of vaccination for its citizens and those arriving here. For matches in Abu Dhabi, the same process as last year could be followed where teams staying in Dubai could visit and come back on match days after going through Covid-19 tests,” said the source. 

“We have made it clear that in case the ICC shifts the T20 World Cup out of India we have to hand over the grounds to them by October 1,” added the source.