BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said India is keen to host the Indian Premier League because it is the most important part of the country’s domestic season but a decision will be taken. Ganguly said BCCI’s priority is also to ensure that the IPL is hosted in India after the tournament was suspended indefinitely due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sourav Ganguly, who celebrates his 48th birthday on Wednesday, said it is important for cricket to return to normalcy in what has been a scary phase for the entire world. However, any decision on the IPL will have to be taken after the International Cricket Council takes a call on the T20 World Cup scheduled to be played in Australia later in the year.
“We want to have it, as I said that cricket needs to be back,” Sourav Ganguly said on India Today’s Inspiration.
“For us, it’s off-season at the moment which has actually helped. We finished our domestic season in March and then we had to cancel the IPL, which is the most important part of our domestic season.
“We want IPL to happen because life needs to be back to normal and cricket needs to be back to normal but we don’t have a decision from the ICC regarding the T20 World Cup,” Ganguly said.
Meanwhile, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and UAE have offered to host the Indian Premier League in case there are logistical issues in India. As of now, all international travel is banned in India where Covid-19 cases are increasing significantly daily.
Only once in the 12-year history of the Indian Premier League has the entire tournament been shifted out of India. In 2009, the IPL was played in South Africa because the dates clash with the general elections in the country. In 2014, the first half of the Indian Premier League was played in the Middle East. The tournament however returned to India after a few weeks.
Sourav Ganguly said he wants to host the tournament in India as moving outside would result in increased costs for everyone.
“We keep hearing different things from the media but till actually its officially not told to the board members and the countries, you don’t know what is happening.
But we want to host it, our first priority is India. Whatever time we get, even if we get 35-40 days we will host it.
“If it doesn’t happen in India because of Covid-19 because places like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai these are big teams in the IPL and at this stage, I don’t think you can put your hand on heart and say that cricket will happen in these places.
“We were keen to go to Ahmedabad to see the new stadium but I don’t know if we will be able to go there or not.
It’s not easy at the moment to say that we are going to host it in India. First is whether we can (play the IPL) within the time frame because IPL has limited windows.
“Secondly, will it be in India. If it’s not then we think of going out, but where. Because going out becomes very expensive for the board, the franchises because of the currency conversion rates.
So we are monitoring it and we are very keen to host it. We have our fingers crossed, we don’t want the year 2020 to finish without an IPL,” Ganguly said.
