Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly has informed that the board is exploring all the options to host the Indian Premier League (IPL 2020) this year. The 13th edition of the league was, initially, set to begin from 29th March, but because of the outbreak of the coronavirus, the league was postponed indefinitely. As of now, the government has eased the lockdown in various states, the Indian board is planning to stage the tournament behind closed doors.
Sourav Ganguly, in his letter written to all affiliated members of the body, stated that the cricket activities all over the country had come to a standstill due to coronavirus, and added that training and competitive cricket might resume in next two months.
“The BCCI is working on all possible options to ensure that we are able to stage the IPL this year, even if it means playing 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,” Ganguly’s letter read.
SOP to be developed to follow guidelines:
Ganguly also added that the state cricket associations would have to follow standard operation procedure(SOP), which would be a set of health guidelines, to resume cricket activities in their respective areas.
“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,” he wrote.
Changes in this season’s domestic cricket:
Sourav Ganguly, further, also talked about the possible options being explored to ensure the various domestic tournaments to be held this year. He said that the details would be shared in a couple of weeks.
“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, they stay competitive and participation is feasible. The BCCI will come up with more details on this front over the next couple of weeks,” Ganguly said in the letter.
BCCI was waiting for ICC’s meeting on Wednesday to find out if they got a clear window for its home season, starting with IPL. However, ICC has not taken not any final call, but the board is moving ahead to organise the T20 league.
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