Dubai: The much-awaited Indian Premier League (IPL) is just a day away to take off in UAE with Mumbai Indians playing Chennai Super Kings in the opener. It was originally scheduled to take place in March but the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic in India delayed until the end of the year.
It is hard to believe that the world’s richest T20 tournament is going to start without a gala ceremony and fans, but it is surely a welcome relief to cricket fans during this situation.
All the eight teams have been in restricted bio-secure ‘bubbles’ since landing in the UAE with the games being played behind closed doors at three venues i.e. Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah.
Major international sports events got postponed or cancelled as most of the countries have been in lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. The attraction of sports in common people is obviously very high this time and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly expects a knob in viewership this season with the games scheduled for India’s prime time TV slot in India.
“They (broadcasters) are actually expecting the highest rating of IPL this season because they believe if (people) don’t turn up in the ground, they will be actually watching on their television sets. There’s a positive in everything,” Ganguly said.
“Because of the COVID and infection, you don’t want people to be too close to each other, but very soon you will see there will be 30 percent people in the ground with social distancing,” the former captain added.
The tournament has been under critical observations after two players from CSK had tested positive for the coronavirus. Players will be crossed to and from the hotel under strict BCCI health safety guidelines.
