By Denzil Fernandes
Abu Dhabi, Sep 11: Finally, after an agonizing period of tantalizing uncertainty, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that the 13th Indian Premier League (IPL) will take place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from September 19 to November 10 with 60 matches played at three different stadiums in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah with eight teams in the fray.
The IPL was originally scheduled to take place in India earlier, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world’s richest T20 tournament was shifted to the UAE which was considered to be a safer venue. Back in 2014 as well, part of the IPL matches were held in the UAE due to the general elections in India. Another occasion was in 2009 when the IPL tournament was held in South Africa because of India’s general elections.
Last year’s winners, Mumbai Indians, runners up, Chennai Super Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Delhi Capitals, Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore will battle it out in the 53-day tournament which will be played under strict Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) laid down by the organizers due to the pandemic. Everyone involved will be medically tested for the virus before being cleared to play. As per the schedule, last year’s winners Mumbai Indians will face last year’s runners up Chennai Super Kings in the opening match on September 19 (Saturday) at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi at 7.30 pm India time. The next day in Dubai, Delhi Capitals will meet Kings XI Punjab. In all, twenty-four IPL matches will be held in Dubai, 20 in Abu Dhabi and 12 in Sharjah. There will be 10 doubleheaders with matches in the afternoon and evening. For the first time in the history of the tournament, the finals will be played on a weekday namely Tuesday.
Without an iota of doubt, the 13th Indian Premier League is going to be a corona infected tournament of a different nature. With numerous Standard Operating Procedures (SOPv) in place to protect the players, coaches, officials and so many others involved, it is going to be one hell of a nightmare for all concerned. Due to the pandemic, whether the spectators will be allowed to watch the matches in the stadium is not decided yet. But it looks slim.
Can you imagine an empty stadium with no soul either to cheer their favourites or just jeer them for non-performance? The world’s highly paid cricketers playing bat and ball in the sprawling arena like robots with no one to back them? Is the television our only source of joy and excitement during these IPL times?
This time around, it is a different and rare scenario due to the widespread pandemic for the world’s biggest limited-overs tournament in the world. This is one tournament where every cricketer is desperate to play and prosper in the process. Some of the batters and bowlers have gone to rescript their personal lives by playing in the lucrative IPL earning megabucks year after year. It is a known fact that the top international players prefer IPL than anything else. Not for nothing does every cricketer dream of playing in the world’s richest cricket tournament. A fat ‘life making’ paycheck is guaranteed by the respective franchises when these players turn out for them. Most of the world’s ‘who’s who’ of cricket can be seen in action at the IPL. However, it is a pity that they will have to play in empty stadiums with no one to cheer them. It will be another kind of experience to play in empty stadiums after a forced lay off due to the coronavirus. These are tough times for every sport all over the world.
Every single team in this year’s IPL has loads of interesting cricketers full of talent and skills. India without doubt has the stock of youngsters who will benefit by brushing shoulders with the best in the business. All franchises are managed by former cricketers as head coaches and mentors as well.
The respective teams for the IPL battle in UAE are:
Chennai Super Kings: M S Dhoni (Capt), Narayan Jagadeesan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, K M Asif Ravindra Jadeja, M Vijay, Josh Hazlewood, Kedar Jadhav, Karn Sharma, Piyush Chawla, Ambati Rayudu, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, Faf du Plessis, Shardul Thakur, Mitchell Santner, Dwayne Bravo, Lungi Ngidi, Sam Curran, Monu Kumar, Shane Watson, Sai Kishore.
Head coach:Stephen Fleming
Kolkata Knight Riders: Dinesh Karthik (Capt), Andre Russell, Harry Gurney, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Siddhesh Lad, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Eoin Morgan, Varun Chakravarthy, Tom Banton, Rahul Tripathi, Chris Green, M Siddharth, Praveen Tambe, Nikhil Naik.
Head coach:Brendon McCullum
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (Capt), Sherfane Rutherford, Suryakumar Yadav, Anmolpreet Singh, Chris Lynn, Saurabh Tiwary, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jasprit Bumrah, Mitchell McClenaghan, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Mohsin Khan, Prince Balwant Rai Singh, Digvijay Deshmukh, Hardik Pandya, Jayant Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Anukul Roy, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Ishan Kishan, Quinton de Kock, Aditya Tare.
Head coach: Mahela Jayawardene
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (Capt), Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Virat Singh, Priyam Garg, Abdul Samad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, Billy Stanlake, T Natarajan, Abhishek Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mitchell Marsh, Fabian Allen, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Sanjay Yadav, Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Bavanaka Sandeep, Basil Thampi.
Head coach: Trevor Bayliss
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (Capt), AB de Villiers, Gurkeerat Mann, Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Dale Steyn, Isuru Udana, Moeen Ali, Pawan Negi, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Adam Zampa, Chris Morris, Pavan Deshpande Parthiv Patel, Joshua Philippe, Shahbaz Ahamad.
Head coach: Mike Hesson
Kings XI Punjab: K L Rahul (Capt), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Sarfaraz Khan, Mandeep Singh, Sheldon Cottrell, Ishan Porel, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Arshdeep Singh, Hardus Viljoen, M Ashwin, J Suchith, Harpreet Brar, Darshan Nalkande, Glenn Maxwell, James Neesham, Chris Jordan, Krishnappa Gowtham, Deepak Hooda, Tajinder Singh Dhillon, Nicholas Pooran, Prabhsimran Singh.
Head coach: Anil Kumble
Delhi Capitals: Shreyas Iyer (Capt), Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Jason Roy, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Lamichhane, Kagiso Rabada, Keemo Paul, Mohit Sharma, Lalit Yadav, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, R Ashwin, Marcus Stoinis, Chris Woakes, Rishabh Pant, Alex Carey, Shimron Hetmyer, Tushar Deshpande.
Head Coach: Ricky Ponting
Rajasthan Royals: Steve Smith (Capt), Mahipal Lomror, Manan Vohra, Riyan Parag, Robin Uthappa, David Miller, Ankit Rajpoot, Mayank Markande, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Varun Aaron, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi, Akash Singh, Oshane Thomas, Andrew Tye, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tewatia, Shashank Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anirudha Joshi, Tom Curran, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, Anuj Rawat.
Head coach: Andrew McDonald
The UAE stands to benefit from the event enormously without doubt. At a time when everyone is suffering due to the pandemic, the cricket carnival which will run for more than 50 days will contribute around 90 million Dirhams to UAE’s economy. Travel, tourism, hospitality, logistics and medical support will be the key areas to benefit in the UAE. he Gulf nation will also enhance its name as a reliable and prominent location to organize international events without any problems. The earlier IPL event held in 2014 in the UAE brought in Dh 145 million to itsr economy.
With such great facilities and infrastructure, the game of cricket will also get a huge boost, especially in the Gulf region. The mighty financial muscle of the BCCI is clearly visible with the IPL-13 now all set to take off on September 19 in the capital city of Abu Dhabi after tackling all issues arising from the horrendous coronavirus.
Let the action commence.