BCCI Apex Committee Meeting: Future of IPL 2020 could be decided today

The International Cricket Council is yet to give its verdict on the T20 World Cup which is scheduled to be held in Australia later this year. BCCI on the other side seems to be making arrangements to host their flagship event.

After days and months of speculation, the time has likely come for the BCCI to make their stance clear. A total of 11 points will be addressed during the apex committee meeting, although the primary emphasis will remain on the future of the Indian Premier League 2020 season.

According to Outlook, “IPL franchise owners met earlier this week and they had no qualms in the IPL going overseas this year. The report also stated that the BCCI is looking at a September-November window.”

The BCCI President Sourav Ganguly while speaking on India Today's Inspiration had said that hosting the IPL is always top priority of the board and if the situation doesn’t improve then other options must be looked into. "We keep hearing different things from the media but till actually its officially not told to the board members and the countries, you don’t know what is happening. Secondly, will it be in India? If it’s not then we think of going out, but where. Because going out becomes very expensive for the board, the franchises because of the currency conversion rates. So we are monitoring it and we are very keen to host it. We have our fingers crossed, we don’t want the year 2020 to finish without an IPL.”

Over the past 48 hours, the United Arab Emirates has likely emerged as the designated choice to conduct the thirteenth edition of the IPL. 

A senior BCCI official spoke to PTI ahead of the meeting, “Obviously, all options need to be explored. The first option is India but you don't know how the situation will be. Obviously, there is UAE and Sri Lanka but taking out the IPL will increase the overheads. I think the president also recently said that." 

The official added further, "I don't think we are still in a position to fix venues in a situation which is so fluid. But the plans and the tentative window needs to be ready so that once ICC makes a formal announcement of T20 World Cup (scheduled for October-November) cancellation next week, we can proceed." 

The members are going to be present via video conference and some major decisions are expected today. Along with the IPL, training for the BCCI central contracted players, start of the Indian domestic season and plans to reconstruct FTPs (schedule) for the Indian national team are on the agenda.