Vivo IPL 2021: Jay Shah explains the exact reason why Vivo IPL 2021 is shifted to UAE.
Vivo IPL 2021: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah clears the exact reason why Phase 2, as they say, of the Vivo Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 is shifted to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Putting forth the exact ground, Shah said that the decision is taken keeping in mind the monsoon in India during September-October.
Earlier, on May 4 after a string of covid positive cases inside the camps of participating teams of IPL, BCCI came to a decision to indefinitely postpone the Indian T20 tournament. The overseas recruits of the IPL faced a lot of difficulties in heading back to their homes, especially the Australians after the BCCI halted the IPL.
The Australian government banned all the connecting flights from India for over a week following which players were airlifted to Maldives.
Jay Shah, who holds a high authority position in the BCCI, was clear about his concerns and stated, “it doesn’t make any sense to host the IPL in India because of the weather conditions.”
The decision of shifting IPL was taken in the Special General Meeting (SGM) of the BCCI on May 29th. All the members and office bearers were on the same page to reschedule the remaining 31 games in the UAE and minimize the losses as much as possible.
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As per the data revealed by the BCCI soon after the suspension of IPL 2021, the Indian board is vulnerable to incur losses of around 2,500 Crores if the remaining games are not completed.
Vivo IPL 2021 shifted to UAE due to Monsoon: Jay Shah
“See we took this decision to conduct IPL in the UAE because it will be monsoon here and it will not be feasible to hold matches here in September and that is why we are taking IPL to the UAE,” Shah was quoted as saying in Hindustan Times.
“We are moving IPL to the UAE only due to weather restrictions as we cannot hold IPL here at the time of monsoon. How can we hold IPL in September in Mumbai or Ahmedabad or any other venues at the time of monsoon? It doesn’t make any sense,” he stated.
Shah further said that the board is seeking some extra time to make a decision on the ICC T20 World Cup 2021.
“And as far as the T20 World Cup is concerned, we will seek time from ICC and decide later. As of now, we are in the mind frame of holding tournaments in the safe zone and we will see how the situation is in the upcoming days. The only thing I can say for now is to seek time from ICC and decide accordingly,” Shah added.
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