BCCI President Sourav Ganguly revealed that the BCCI will create a window for the remainder of IPL 2021 ahead of this year’s T20 World Cup.
The 14th edition of the Indian Premier League was suspended indefinitely on May 4 due to the breach in bio-secure bubble and multiple Covid-19 cases emerging from four IPL franchises. Covid-19 cases from both the host venues forced BCCI’s hand to postpone the tournament indefinitely. The board, however, is keen on completing the remainder of IPL 2021 later in the year.
Ganguly on Thursday opened up on the situation of the IPL 2021 later this year. He also revealed the board is staring at an enormous loss if the remaining matches of the tournament are not completed this year.
The league was called off on Tuesday after a string of COVID-19 cases were reported across the bio-bubbles of four teams. Two players from Kolkata Knight Riders and one each from Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals were tested positive, along with four members of the support staff at the Chennai Super Kings.
Ganguly stated that the board is looking at a window between India’s tour of England and the T20 World Cup this year to complete the remainder of the IPL 2021 season. The BCCI will be talking to the board of the other countries to finalize a slot later this year. He also mentioned that the board is staring at losses to the tune of around INR 2,500 crore if the remaining games are not completed this year.
“There has got to be a lot of shuffling. Only a day has passed since we suspended the IPL. We have to speak to other boards and see if a window can be made available before the T20 World Cup. Lot of things are involved and we will slowly start working on them,”
“If we fail to complete the IPL, the loss will be close to INR 2500 crore (USD 340 million approx). That is going by early estimates,”
Ganguly told The Telegraph.
IPL 2021 was slated to conclude on May 30, but the tournament had to be suspended after just 29 matches due to COVID-19. Last year, the full season of IPL was conducted swiftly in the UAE despite the pandemic, and the BCCI is likely to move the tournament overseas once again this year to complete the remaining IPL 2021 matches.
A group of counties in England have expressed a keen interest in hosting the tournament and have written to the ECB to extend their proposal to the BCCI.
“We will have to do a post-mortem to know how the virus entered the bubble”: Sourav Ganguly
Sourav Ganguly is unsure on how the virus could have entered the strict bio-secure bubble and cited that travelling could’ve been the only reason. He assured that the board will do a ‘post-mortem’ on the matter. “I really don’t know what led to this situation inside the biosecurity bubble. We will have to do a post-mortem and look into the reasons behind this.”
“But travelling could have been an issue. Last year [IPL 2020] in the UAE, everything was restricted to three venues and within a limited area. There was no air travel involved. Here we had six different venues,”
the former India cricketer added.
The President also indicated the rampant second wave of Covid-19 in India as a reason for the bubble getting harder to manage.
“You also have to look at the situation around the country. The way the number of people are getting affected on a daily basis is total madness. No one knows what is going to happen tomorrow. Things have gone out of control for everyone,”
Ganguly said.
