As the BCCI decided to suspend the 14th edition of the Vivo IPL midway, speculations about when the season can resume started flooding in. BCCI is trying desperately to conduct the remaining matches, and it might utilize the September window to organize the remaining 31 games of the 2021 season.
The current edition of Vivo IPL has been halted midway, but the BCCI is trying hard to revive the tournament as soon as they can. Shedding some light on the possible window when the remaining games can be held, a franchise owner said that a September window is being considered. By then, the India-England series would be over, and the overseas players would be ready for the T20 World Cup.
Brijesh Patel, the chairman of the IPL, didn’t deny the claims and said that they are looking for a window, and if there is one, then it will be utilized.
“We’ll have to see if it is possible in September. We need to examine the plans of the ICC and other boards,”
he added.
The upcoming T20 World Cup is scheduled from October 18 to November 15, but due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a lot of uncertainty regarding the venue of the tournament. India are currently the designated hosts, but UAE has been kept as a stand-by.
Before taking a final call on suspending the league midway, IPL and BCCI officials contacted the franchise’s managers to know their point of view. Rajeev Shukla, the BCCI vice-president, dialled the franchises, and most of the teams preferred immediate suspension of the league.
At one stage, BCCI were thinking about suspending the action for five days and taking all the franchises into quarantine, but they decided otherwise after noticing the panic among foreign players and senior support staff members.
Right now, the BCCI and franchises are focusing on sending all the team members home. Charter flights are being booked to Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ranchi and Delhi. Moreover, BCCI claimed that it is also coordinating with foreign boards on sending their players home in the midst of travel bans from India.
