Cricket
The IPL is Back: Everything You Need to Know About This Season
The Indian Premier League is on and it is scheduled to take place on September 19 until November 10 in Abu Dhabi. This will be a 53-day tournament. There will also be ten-afternoon matches or doubleheaders this season that is scheduled to start on October 10.
This will be the 13th season of the league and this year is different as the previous seasons have always started in April, May, and June. The BCCI had to postpone this season in March because of the pandemic.
It was on August 2 of this year that the BCCI announced that the IPL will push through this year and that it will take place in UAE. The government has given the go signal for this just a few days after the return is announced. The schedule or the fixtures were announced on September 6, and the first match will be between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings.
The return of the IPL is something that many are looking forward to because the last few months were a bit quiet for the sports industry. It was only in June when other sports leagues finally came back. With this, we can expect that many fans are already looking for ways to stream the matches. Some are also looking forward to placing their wagers and are already looking for the best IPL online odds.
When it comes to the live stream and match broadcasting, there are a few options that fans have. The IPL 2020 will be broadcasted on the Star Sports Network and this will be broadcasted in multiple languages and on multiple network channels.
Meanwhile, Disney+ Hotstar will be live streaming the matches as well. The customers of Jio should also be able to watch the IPL for free. The live updates of the matches will also be available on insidereport.co.
The UAE was chosen to be the venue for this season because of a few reasons. UAE has already previously hosted the IPL and because of the pandemic, safety protocols are implemented. UAE is more likely to pull off what other leagues already have to push through with their respective seasons with lower risks.
This year, the main sponsor of the IPL is Dream11 and this is why it is called Dream IPL 2020. Last year, VIVO was the main sponsor of the league, however, it was announced that the mobile company has already backed out. Aside from Dream, Unacademy is also the signed partner this season until next year.
Another thing that changed this season is the start time of the matches. The match from the previous seasons has always started at 8 PM IST. However, for this year, the matches will start 30 minutes earlier at 7:30 PM IST. That will be 6:00 PM in UAE. There will be 10 doubleheaders this season and these will start earlier, at 3:30 PM IST or 2:00 PM UAE time.
The fans and the players themselves are surely looking forward to starting this season. However, it’s understandable that there are also players and other people who are involved in this season to be somehow worried about pushing through with this season despite the on-going pandemic.
This is why the IPL has made the necessary actions to ensure that everyone will be safe throughout the season. Everyone who will be involved in making this year’s IPL happen will have to be part of a bio-secure bubble or the bubble.
Being part of the bubble means that once you’re in, you will not be allowed to have any physical contact with other people who are not part of it. This means that the players, the staff members, the broadcasters, and even the professionals who will take care of the crews will have to remain in their designated places at all times.
This does sound like a drastic measure, but this will help lower the risk of anyone getting infected with the virus. Of course, before they get into the bubble, testing will be done. It doesn’t stop there because even if they are already in the bubble, everyone will still be tested now and then.
The people involved will have to be inside the bubble for almost three months. Surely, this is something that will be mentally challenging. This could also affect the performance of the teams, but this is something that we have to wait and see. After all, the lack of an audience could also affect them. Whether crowds will eventually be allowed in the stadium at some point in the season is still hard to tell.
