Remainder of IPL 2021 to be played from Sept. 19 to Oct 15, reveals BCCI's vice-president

The remainder of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 is set to begin on September 19 and will go on until October 15, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) vice-president Rajeev Shukla confirmed on Wednesday (June 9).

"IPL will be held between September 19 and October 15," Shukla told news agency IANS in an interview.

The 14th edition of the IPL was suspended in India last month after a sudden surge in COVID-19 cases not only in the country but also among the players and support staff in the IPL 2021 bio-bubble. Following the first 29 matches, the tournament was suspended indefinitely before a Special General Meeting (SGM) announced that the rest of the tournament will be played in the UAE.

The UAE hosted the entire season of the IPL in 2020 and the T20 World Cup, which is scheduled to take place in October-November in India, is expected to be co-hosted by middle-east countries UAE and Oman. The exact dates and venue(s) for the T20 World Cup will be revealed next month, an ICC official said.

"We will release the dates and venue of the T20 World Cup only in July. We cannot comment on it as of now. But there is no rule on the need for a gap ahead of an ICC event. The ICC needs 10 days to prepare the pitch and the ground ahead of an event. That too is a norm and not a rule," an ICC official was quoted, as saying in an interview.

"The rest of it is still being worked out between the BCCI and the ICC. We can talk about it only later," the official added.

Moreover, the BCCI vice-president Shukla has also assured that the very short gap between the end of the IPL and the start of the T20 World Cup should not be a problem.

"There should be no problem with the gap. The first phase of the T20 World Cup will comprise qualifiers [according to BCCI's knowledge]. So, the main teams like India and others will get sufficient gaps," said Shukla, who also indicated that the non-Test playing nations could be playing the tournament first.

Other than the Test-playing nations, Papua New Guinea, the Netherlands, Namibia, Scotland and Oman are the associate teams playing in the T20 World Cup. It is believed that the ICC are planning to host the initial matches, which are the qualifiers to the main tournament, in Oman. However, the process is still being worked out.