‘It’s a great venue to play cricket’- Gautam Gambhir on IPL 2020 getting shifted to the UAE

Gautam Gambhir, the former Indian cricketer, feels that that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has some great venues to play cricket on. The 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is scheduled to take place in the UAE from Saturday, September 19 with the final to take place on Sunday, November 8. The eight franchises are set to leave base by August 20.

Gambhir, who last played in the tournament for the Delhi Daredevils, now Capitals in 2018, said that the upcoming IPL will hold much more significance than the other editions of the tournament. Back in 2014, 20 games in the event took place in the UAE because of elections in India. The second-half of the cash-rich league thereafter came back to India.

This IPL probably will be bigger, says Gautam Gambhir

“It does not matter where it goes but if it (IPL) goes to UAE it’s a great venue to play cricket in any format and plus most importantly I think it’s going to change the mood of the nation as well,” Gambhir was quoted as saying in Star Sports’ show Cricket Connected.

“It’s not about which franchise wins or which player scores runs or which guy takes wicket, its simply changing the mood of the nation. So, this IPL probably will be bigger than the rest of the IPLs because I think this is for the nation,” he added.

In 2014, Gambhir had played in the UAE and helped the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to their second IPL championship after 2012. In 2018, he moved to the Daredevils and gave up captaincy after a poor start. Later in the same year, he hung his boots from all forms of cricket after playing in the Ranji Trophy for Delhi in front of his home crowd at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.

As far as the upcoming IPL is concerned, it was scheduled to start on March 29 with the match between the Mumbai Indians (MI) and the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Wankhede Stadium. However, it couldn’t take place back then due to the lockdowns amid the coronavirus pandemic. If the IPL doesn’t take place then the BCCI stands to lose around INR 4,000 crores.