IPL 2020: Franchises in favour of playing warm-up matches ahead of the tournament
The official broadcasting partners of the IPL STAR are also in favour of playing the warm-ups.
The 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is all set to get underway from September 19, with the final to take place on November 10. Initially, the league was supposed to commence from March 29 but BCCI had to suspend it owing to the rise in the number of coronavirus cases in India and now the tournament has been moved to UAE.
All the Indian players will be looking forward to getting back to action after a long unexpected break as they haven’t even stepped on the field since March. Thus, all the eight IPL franchises have proposed to host the warm-up matches before the actual tournament commences. This will give the players a much-needed breakthrough and practice for the upcoming league according to them.
“Having some competitive warm-up games will be good for the tournament,” a leading franchise executive told TOI. Other franchises also expressed their willingness to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in participating in the warm-up matches. A franchise CEO gave “100% support to the idea of warm-ups” while other two franchises believe that “warm-ups are the only way to get players back into the tournament mode right from Day One”.
Star India supports the idea of warm-up matches
The official broadcasting partners of the IPL STAR also supported this idea saying that this will help them in building the anticipation for the cash-rich league and will also benefit the players as they haven’t played since the India tour of New Zealand which happened in February.
“They are in favour of the idea and are also keen on their broadcast as it will help build the anticipation for IPL. That’s one of the concerns, because these boys haven’t really had a go since the last five months and it’s less than a week that they’ve started outdoor training. Match-practice won’t be adequate for sure by the time the tournament begins,” they added. The final decision will be taken by the Sourav Ganguly-led BCCI. Also, the Board is yet to release the official schedule of the tournament.
Download Our App