For the first time 3 venues will be staging 60 matches:
When IUPL shifted to the UAE, it would be the first time the 60 matches will be staged in three venues in 53 days. This is not for the first time that IPL is taking place overseas. In the year 2009, the whole IPL edition was held in South Africa where the matches were hosted by eight venues. In the year 2014, a part of the IPL (20 matches) was held in UAE and staged by Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah. In India, IPL is taking place in the home grounds of eight franchises, and occasionally some more venues.
The 48 games of the 2019 World Cup were spread across 11 different venues in the UK. In the World T20 2016, 35 games were taking place in seven venues. Now question is that will the 3 venues pitches of UAE be capable to handle the load of 53 matches?
According to IPL official, now BCCI is concentrating on the securing permissions from government and preparing Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for the cash-rich tournament, the BCCI is not giving that much thought on venues.
PR Viswanathan Statement:
PR Viswanathan, who was working as a BCCI curator in 2014 IPL said that this point will become a concern as the tournament progress. He added that it is not only the 60 matches, you will hold some practice games also, even after housing in other smaller fields where practice matches can be staged. So, all total it will be 70 matches in three venues. And the number is huge.
Furthermore, the weather in the UAE is very harsh. There is a heavy amount of dust accumulation as well as clay content in the soil. That’s why it is tough to get a hard wicket there. And you won’t able to make a 200 plus score.
Concentrating on 2014 IPL, we can see that there were just two 200-plus scores, both in the one match. Other than that match, there were nine numbers of 170 plus scores and 12 numbers of 160-plus scores in 20 matches. This happened six years back, but in the Pakistan Super League, which was taking place in the year 2018-19 in UAE, there were no 200-plus totals. And in India, 2019 IPL saw eleven innings that crossed 200-plus.
