The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed on Wednesday (June 9) that the remaining matches of the 14th edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) will be played between September 19 and October 15, 2021, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

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While speaking to a news agency IANS, BCCI Vice-President Rajeev Shukla said, “IPL will be held between September 19 and October 15.” The tournament was curtailed on May 4 amid players from different teams started detecting positive. Of 60 matches, 29 have been played so far. 

Interestingly, the second half of the cash-rich domestic tournament will be too close to the start of the T20 World Cup that begins around mid-October. T20 World Cup was scheduled to happen in 2020, however, due to the corona crisis, the international tournament was suspended until October 2021. 

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has not officially announced the dates for the T20 World Cup yet, which immediately follows the IPL. However, it is speculated that the international 20-over format game to being from October 18. The T20 World Cup, which will be hosted by the BCCI, is also likely to be held in the UAE or perhaps in another gulf nation such as Oman. 

The ICC told the news agency on Wednesday that there was no rule of a mandatory gap between a domestic tournament and an ICC tournament. 

“We will release the dates and venue of 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,” said an ICC official. He added, “The rest of it is still being worked out between the BCCI and the ICC. We can talk about it only later.” 

It’s likely the gap between T20 World Cup and IPL 2021 would be short, in this regard, when asked if the gap will be too little for players to switch from IPL to T20 World Cup, Shukla said the small gap shouldn’t be a problem as the initial phase of T20 World is likely to involve non-Test playing nations. 

“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 gap,” said Shukla, implying that the non-Test playing nations could be playing the tournament first.