Taking Indian Premier League to the United Arab Emirates will make monitoring the event slightly easier as it would be restricted to three venues, the governing body’s Anti-Corruption Unit head Ajit Singh has said, according to PTI.

The 13th edition of the tournament is expected to start in the UAE from September 19, with the final on on November 8, and three stadiums – in Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi — are expected to host 60 games over 51 days.

“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,” Singh told PTI.

The UAE has a history of being a hot bed for bookies and fixers but the ACU head is quite confident that intelligence gathering will not be hampered by this shift of tournament.

“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.

The UAE hosted one leg of the IPL in 2014 due to general elections in India.

Singh said there are eight ACU officers who are on BCCI payroll currently.

Whether that will be enough in terms of managing the work through 60 matches will depend on the kind of bio-security bubble created, the former Rajasthan police official said..

“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,” Singh said.

“In case, we need men, we will hire them.”

With the ICC headquartered in Dubai, the BCCI, if need be, can take help of the global body which has a huge team of ACU officials who can be hired, according to a BCCI official.

“If it is a private league that approaches ICC for hiring ACU officers and they agree to cover the event, then the league organisers bear the costs,” a senior board official told PTI.

The BCCI’s appointment of Integrity Officers will also have to determined.

“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 franchise official is quoted as saying.

(With PTI inputs)