With most of the top Board of Control for Cricket in India officials "busy with preparations" for the Indian Premier League, the cricket board will be represented at the Int'l Cricket Council World T20 final by its secretary Sanjay Patel, according to the PTI. Whether interim BCCI-Indian Premier League President Sunil Gavaskar would be present during the final "could not be confirmed." Gavaskar's manager, however, said that "there are no plans of the former India captain as of now to attend the event" (PTI, 4/5). The TIMES OF INDIA reported among a host of issues concerning the shift of the first twenty IPL matches to the UAE later this month, "a key aspect revolves around compensating the eight franchises who will end up losing a good chunk of their respective home games." Each franchise "is scheduled to play an approximate five matches at the three venues" -- Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah -- in the UAE. Shifting of matches outside the country "would mean substantial losses for the franchises that are looking forward to their share of home games because of their various sponsorship commitments." Gavaskar said, "It is being looked into. It will take some time to calculate the exact amount of compensation. There are lot of factors to look at as far as the compensation package is concerned. I am pretty certain they won't be too disappointed (when the compensation is finalized )" (TIMES OF INDIA, 4/5). In Mumbai, V. Narayan Swamy reported the Union sports ministry "has given its clearance" to this year's IPL but not without questioning the choice of the UAE as the venue for the first phase of the tournament. It asked the BCCI to explain why it chose a "non-regular venue" for holding a few IPL matches when the BCCI had the option of selecting a place "which is on the regular international calendar of ICC."
Sources said that "the ministry was apprehensive of the venues" -- Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Dubai -- as they were known havens of illegal betting syndicates (TIMES OF INDIA, 4/5). Also in Mumbai, Indranil Basu wrote the BCCI decided to bring IPL team owners "under the ambit of its anti-corruption code of conduct following recommendations from the Supreme Court's probe panel and other anti-corruption officials." According to BCCI sources, "the revamped code has already been discussed with IPL team owners." A BCCI official said, "Earlier, team owners were not covered by any anti-corruption code but now they have to follow these rules just like the players" (TIMES OF INDIA, 4/4).
