As the country is opening up and sporting action is partially resuming with certain guidelines of Covid-19 being enforced now, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is exploring various options to ensure that the Indian Premier League (IPL) is held this year. BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, in a letter to the state associations, has stated that the board will shortly decide on the future course of action as it is even willing to host the tournament in empty stadiums.
“The fans, franchisees, players, broadcasters, sponsors and all other stakeholders are keenly looking forward to the possibility of IPL being hosted this year. Recently, a lot of players, both from India and other countries, participating in IPL have also shown their keenness on being a part of this year IPL,” the letter read.
It also stated that the BCCI is also in the process of developing a Covid-19 Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) for all State Cricket Associations. Essentially this SOP is being made with a view of providing our members with a standard set of guidelines which will help the associations to resume cricket in their respective areas. The BCCI has engaged medical specialists for the drafting of this SOP.
Ganguly also mentioned about the domestic cricket and said, “The domestic cricket season of 2019-2020 was nearing completion when the Covid-19 pandemic struck India. Fortunately, most of our domestic cricket matches for the last season were completed. Moving ahead, the BCCI is in the process of planning the domestic competitions for the next cricketing season. We are working on various formats and options in our endeavour to ensure that various domestic tournaments are held. The BCCI will come up with more details on this front over the next couple of weeks.”
He added, “The Covid-19 virus is highly contagious and BCCI has taken cognisance of the same. We are in the process of developing a Covid-19 Standard Operation Procedures (SOP) for all State Cricket Associations. Essentially this SOP is being made with a view of providing our members with a standard set of guidelines which will help the associations to resume cricket in their respective areas. The BCCI has engaged medical specialists for the drafting of this SOP.”
Meanwhile, the International Cricket Council (ICC) is taking its time to decide on the schedule of the T20 Cricket World Cup, which is scheduled to be played this October-November in Australia, but the chances of it going ahead have not looked promising in recent weeks