There is no denying the fact that shifting the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) would be quite a task logistically for the tournament organizers but for BCCI Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) head Ajit Singh reckons that the shifting will make the monitoring of the event “slightly easier” as it would be restricted to just three venues.
The IPL will start in the UAE from September 19 and the final can be expected to be played on November 8 with three stadiums — Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi hosting the 60 games over 51 days. Talking about the same to PTI, Sinh had said, “In the UAE, it will be slightly easier doing (monitoring ACU activity) as there are only three grounds compared to eight venues in India. That’s not an issue at all. Once the schedule comes, we will decide on the workforce.”
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In 2014, the UAE hosted the initial part of the season due to the general elections in India. Singh said currently, there are “eight ACU officers who are on BCCI payrolls”. So, according to the home they will be enough in terms of managing the work through 60 matches as well as keeping a tab on hotels, but it will also depend on the kind of the bio-security bubble created.
ACU chief elaborated, “It’s too early to comment on measures as we need to first check what kind of bio-security measures will be created. We first need to see how things are taking shape there and we will deploy our men accordingly. In case, we need men, we will hire them.”
With the ICC headquartered in Dubai, the BCCI will be able to take help from the global body which has a huge team of ACU officials who can be hired, if required.
Informing the same, a senior BCCI official said, “If it is a private league that approaches ICC for hiring ACU officers and they agree to cover the event, then the league organizers bear the costs,.”
The BCCI might need some more considering that each team will have one dedicated ‘Integrity Officer’ as stated in the rules.
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Clarifying the same, a senior franchise official said, “It is the BCCI that will designate one Integrity officer per team during the course of the IPL. Now whether they will be a part of the bio-bubble (if created), we don’t know, but the Integrity officer is completely their domain.”
The UAE has always been a budding ground for a lot of bookies and fixers but the ACU head is quite confident that intelligence gathering will not be hampered by this shift of tournament.
