IPL ACU Head Ajit Singh Reckons Monitoring The Tournament Across Three Venues 'Slightly Easier'

The 2020 edition of the IPL will take place in the United Arab Emirates. The cash-rich will kickstart from September 19 and the final will be played on November 08.

Conducting IPL in Covid-19 teams will be a colossal challenge as far as logistics is concerned but for the IPL Anti-Corruption Unit head Ajit Singh, monitoring the tournament will be ‘slightly easier’ since it will be restricted to just three venues in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah.

“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 the workforce,” Ajit Singh told Press Trust of India [PTI]

Ajit Singh revealed that currently, just eight Anti-Corruption Unit officers are on BCCI’s payroll. When asked if that would be enough to monitor as many as 60 games besides keeping a tab on hotels, Singh said it will depend on the ‘bio-bubble’

“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,” Ajit Singh added.

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“Whoever is involved (bookies/fixers) they are all inter-connected”- Ajit Singh on the threat of bookies approaching players in the UAE during the IPL

The BCCI might need some more workforce considering that each franchise will have its own ‘Integrity Officer’

“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,” a senior BCCI official told PTI.

The UAE has a long history of corruptors approaching the cricketers for fixing but Singh asserted that intelligence information will not be hampered due to Covid-19 restrictions.

“Whoever is involved (bookies/fixers) they are all inter-connected. If we have our sources here, they also know how these bookies operate. If they get an information of this place, they will get an information of that place also. It’s not so much of an issue,” he said.

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