IPL 2020: Full tournament schedule to be released tomorrow, informs Sourav Ganguly

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly revealed that the full schedule of Indian Premier League 2020 will be released on Friday (September 4). The IPL 2020 is scheduled to be held in UAE between September 19 and November 10 but to everyone’s surprise and for one reason or the other the schedule of the tournament hasn’t been released yet.

The Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly has now revealed when the schedule of IPL 2020 will release.

Sourav Ganguly said, “We understand schedules are delayed. It is almost on the verge of getting final and should be released by Friday.”

It was expected that the opening encounter of the tournament could be held between champions Mumbai Indians and 2019 runners up Chennai Super Kings. However, things went haywire with 13 members of the CSK camp, including two players, turned positive for COVID-19. There was speculation that CSK might not play the opener, although CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan said the team would be ready to play the opener if required.

Also Read: IPL 2020: BCCI budgeted 10 crore for 20,000 COVID-19 tests

If CSK does not feature in the opener, either Sunrisers Hyderabad, the runners-up of the 2018 edition, or Virat Kohli's Royal Challengers Bangalore could take the spot.

The BCCI has been a handed exemption from quarantine for all the franchises and now players will not have to self-isolate upon traveling from Dubai to Abu Dhabi or Sharjah to Abu Dhabi. However, everyone associated with IPL 2020 will have to maintain the strict protocols linked to the bio-secure environment created by the respective franchises.

Reportedly, BCCI was set to release the fixture earlier but with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) camp getting stuck by COVID-19 after 13 members of their contingent tested positive for the virus, the schedule wasn’t released. The rest of the CSK contingent have tested negative for coronavirus and the CSK squad is now awaiting another set of results before commencing their preparation for IPL 2020.

However, with the rest of the CSK contingent being fine and other franchises doing well in the bio-secure environment, BCCI is now set to issue the fixture list of IPL 2020.

While it is yet to be known whether the entire schedule will be released or it will come out in parts.

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