NEW DELHI: The Indian Premier League, suspended as a new coronavirus wave hit India, will be finished in the United Arab Emirates in September and October, India’s national cricket board said Saturday.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India also said it will ask the global governing body for more time to make a decision on whether the Twenty20 World Cup should be held in India in October and November.

The IPL, the world’s richest cricket tournament, was half finished when it was halted on May 4 after a number of players and team officials caught coronavirus despite being in bio-secure bubbles.

The board has since been in tough negotiations with other countries and the International Cricket Council on when to squeeze the remaining matches into the crowded international calendar.

About 160,000 people have died in India since April 1 in a devastating wave that has seen hospitals overwhelmed. There are fears that the country could be hit by another surge later this year. The BCCI said it was moving the remaining matches to the UAE — which staged all of last year’s IPL — because of the monsoon season and did not mention the pandemic.