As a special treat for the cricket fans, particularly for the admirers of the Indian cricket festival - Indian Premier League (IPL), it has been officially announced that their favorite teams will be bashing against each other on the green fields as the 13th season of the IPL has been scheduled to take place in the United Arab Emirates. 

The much-awaited news had brought a fan moment for the followers. While the 13th season got deferred owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, IPL Chairman Brijesh Patel has, on Friday, issued the conformity that the 13th season will start on September 19 and the final game has been scheduled for November 8 in the Arab country. 

According to the reports, the governing council of the IPL will sit for a meet next week during which the final details and the match schedules would be penned.  The PTI quoted Patel's statement 'The GC will meet shortly but we have finalized the schedule. It will run from September 19 to November 8. We expect the approval from the government and the current season is packed with a full 51 day IPL season'. 

By citing that the BCCI will formally write to the Emirates Cricket Board on conducting the matches, Patel stated that the standard operating procedure has been under preparation for advising to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. He further stated that social distancing norms will be maintained during the matches and added that the government of the United Arab Emirates has to decide on permitting the crowds in the stadium.

Currently, three cricket grounds are available in the UAE - the Sharjah ground, Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, and Dubai International Stadium and the matches will be held in these venues and with the view of the training of the teams, the BCCI will likely be taking the grounds of the ICC Academy for rent. Earlier, it was speculated that the IPL will start from September 26. 

However, the Indian Cricket Board has decided to start a week before -September 19 with the view of ensuring that India's tour of Australia won't be damaged. According to the reports, the BCCI has informed the franchies about the plan of conducting the games in the UAE and the ICC's decision of postponing the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year has brought the end of postponement of the IPL season. 

Amid the pandemic and various scales of restrictions, the world's richest cricket league had seen postponements while the other global events were eventually canceled. The IPL season was earlier scheduled to start at the end of March but deferred due to the pandemic and travel restrictions. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly had kept pressing that the event will be held sometime this year.

Based on his assertions, it has been scheduled in September and while the announcement had made the cricketing world happier, it also has raised concerns and questions on the need to conduct the national sporting event while the international sporting events including world's biggest event -Olympics and the T20 World cup were canceled for the first time in the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak.

It also has amazed many on the reason behind why the current season of the IPL hasn't called off while the Olympics 2020 that was scheduled to take place in Tokyo called off by the Japanese government. According to the reports, the BCCI has seemingly desperate to conduct the IPL regardless of the barriers as losing one season is equal to losing one part of its wealth. The BCCI is expected to endure the loss of Rs 4000 crore if the IPL season was canceled. 

The BCCI would be burdened with the loss of broadcast rights and title sponsor. The reports say that the BCCI would be losing Rs 3,300 crore from Star Network as it has gained the broadcasting rights and the Star Network has already cleared Rs 2000 crore for BCCI for broadcasting 13th season of IPL, which, if canceled, the BCCI ought to repay back. Along with that, the BCCI would also lose Rs 440 crore grant from Vivo as the title sponsor. 

Amid demand for the ban of the Chinese products, the BCCI has already signed an agreement with Vivo and the BCCI will also have to lose multi sponsorships if the season was canceled. Though fans are relishing to see their favorite players back on the ground, the BCCI has leaped forward to conduct the games amid the COVID-19 threat. As per the current health protocol in Dubai, people who are tested negative aren't mandated to be under quarantine and those who haven't tested, they must undergo the test and carry the result.