It’s not yet certain if the 2021 edition of the IPL will be played in India © BCCI
The 2021 IPL player auction will be held on February 18 in Chennai, the league announced with a tweet on Wednesday. The announcement comes after the IPL Governing Council meeting on January 6, where it was decided that the 2021 edition of the tournament would remain an eight-team event.
With the second Test of the India-England series scheduled to end on February 17 – the first two Tests are in Chennai and the last two in Ahmedabad – February 18 presents the organisers with a daylong window to conduct the auctions. The eight franchises had announced their list of retained and released players by the deadline of January 20.
How the teams are placed for February’s auction © ESPNcricinfo Ltd
It is, however, not yet certain if the tournament will be held in India. The three-member Governing Council, headed by Brijesh Patel, deliberated on the matter in that meeting at the start of the year, and kept their options open. With the Covid-19 pandemic continuing to surge in India, it is understood that the UAE, where the 2020 edition was held, remained as one of the options.
With the pandemic throwing up several challenges regularly, the IPL remains uncertain about whether to conduct matches on a home-and-away basis, which would mean having a minimum of eight venues. The other alternative, which was also discussed last year before moving the tournament to the UAE, was to organise the tournament at a limited number of venues, which would reduce travel for teams.
More to follow…
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo