NEW DELHI: BCCI secretary Jay Shah on Saturday dismissed speculation that the IPL would be shifted to the UAE due to the upcoming general elections in the country between April 19 to June 1.
There were endless rumours about the IPL being shifted to the Emirates due to the elections which will be held in seven phases with the reports filling social media about players being asked to deposit their passports with respective franchises.
However, Shah set the record straight.
"The entire IPL will be held in India. We will be formulating the remaining schedule very soon and announce it," Shah told PTI.
The schedule for the first two weeks has been already released with defending champions Chennai Super Kings taking on Royal Challengers Bangalore at home on March 22.
In earlier conversations with PTI, BCCI secretary Shah had categorically maintained that the full tournament will be held in India, just like it happened in 2019, the year of previous Lok Sabha election. They were only waiting for the Election Commission to announce the poll dates.
In the morning, IPL chairman Arun Dhumal had also said there was no chance of shifting the IPL out of the country and all the reports of the tournament being held in UAE were baseless.
However, the league was moved out of the country during the general elections in 2014 when the UPA government was in power. Then the first phase was held in the UAE before returning to India for the second phase.