The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday postponed the 2020 T20 World Cup that was scheduled to be held in Australia in October-November.

The postponement paves the way for the BCCI to organise this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) during those months, likely in the United Arab Emirates. It is learnt that the Indian board will now approach Union Home Minister Amit Shah for approval. As per the ICC release, “disruption caused by COVID-19” forced the T20 World Cup postponement.

However, because of the coronavirus spread in the country, the BCCI is not hopeful of getting the go-ahead to organise the tournament in India. As the board functionary said, having it in the UAE “shouldn’t be a problem”, for the curve has flattened considerably in the Emirates. 

According to BCCI sources, another reason why the UAE is preferred is that both Emirates airline and Etihad Airways have started regular flights while in India, only Air India is doing so at the moment. Also, the UAE doesn’t have a 14-day quarantine rule. Downloading the ALHOSN UAE app – “the official integrated digital platform for COVID-19 tests in the UAE” – would suffice.