Will India’s tour of Aus kick off cricket in 2020?
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: For the first time since the pandemic forced cricket to take cover, India captain Virat Kohli indicated he is ready to play behind closed doors. This comes on the same day Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is not averse to sending a team for a bilateral tour of Australia later this year even if that means keeping them in quarantine.
India are scheduled to play four Tests and three ODIS in December-january, a tour that should give a massive fillip to Cricket Australia’s (CA) dwindling finances; as reported by HT earlier, CA had even approached the BCCI exploring the possibility of adding more matches to the tour.
If India tour doesn’t take place, CA could lose as much as 300 million Australian dollars.
“As far as the fifth Test goes, when cricket resumes, (we will see) whether any country would like to host an additional Test or have two T20s instead, which is likely to generate more revenues,” BCCI treasurer Arun Singh Dhumal said.
However, with international travel still banned and a vaccine unlikely before next year, the India team may have to commit to a mandatory two-week quarantine before the tour. “There is no choice —everyone will have to do that. You would want to resume the cricket,” Dhumal told Sydney Morning Herald. “Two weeks is not that long a lockdown.”
The last cricket match before lockdowns were announced world over was between Australia and New Zealand at an empty Sydney Cricket Ground on March 13, where players avoided shaking hands or doing highfives.
CLOSED DOORS
Even i f Cricket Australia secures a travel exemption for India, the visitors will most likely follow a similar protocol and play behind closed doors.
“It’s quite a possible situation, it might happen,” said Kohli on ‘Cricket Connected’, a Star Sports show.
“I honestly don’t know how everyone is going to take that because we all are used to playing in front of so many passionate fans. I know it will be played at a very good intensity but that feeling of the crowd connecting with the players and the tension of the game where everyone goes through it in the stadium, those emotions are very difficult to recreate. Things will still go on, but I doubt that one will feel that magic happening inside because of the atmosphere that was created. We will play sports how it is supposed to be played, but those magical moments will be difficult to come by.”
STRONG VIEWERSHIP POTENTIAL
Having won the last Test series in January 2019, the onus is on India to repeat it against an Australian team that has reinstated Steve Smith and David Warner after they served year-long bans after a ball-tampering scandal in March 2018.
It should make for good television, something that the BCCI is keen to exploit even though they are not very upbeat about the ICC T20 World Cup scheduled to be held in Australia just before the tour.
“...would it be possible for Australia to have so many teams (16) coming in and quarantining for two weeks? Players will be out of cricket for so long and further two weeks of quarantine and then straightaway to go into
T20 World Cup….” Dhumal said, pointing out the logistical challenges. “The India-australia tour is more likely to happen because it is further away and logistically easier to organise.”
WORLD CUP UNLIKELY?
If the T20 World Cup does happen in October-november, then the Indian team would already be in the country, and will not need any extra quarantine measures, Dhumal said.
If the World Cup is cancelled or postponed, then the BCCI could look at staging the IPL in that window. Nothing comes close to the league when it comes to revenue sources for the BCCI.
The Indian board is estimated to annually earn ~2500 crore from just the IPL, compared to ~950 crore from bilateral cricket in 2020-21. The BCCI stands to earn between ~60-90 crore from the T20 World Cup.
On an Instagram live session with Rohit Sharma, Australian opener Warner too admitted that the World Cup looks unlikely to be held. “It will be difficult to get everyone (16 teams) together,” said Warner.
During the chat, Sharma said India’s tour of Australia will be a “great way” to restart the international calendar. “I am looking forward to the upcoming tour already,” Sharma said. “Hope both boards manage to get the series underway.”
What i s becoming c l e ar though is that cricket will happen in some format or the other this year. England has already expressed willingness to go into isolation for their home series against West Indies and Pakistan at two centres (Ageas Bowl and Old Trafford), starting July 8.
“The players would be sectioned off in one part of the hotel a nd would be in isolation together,” England Test captain Joe Root, who may have to miss the birth of his second child, told Sky Sports.
“There would be no interaction with the media, the TV crews or even the opposition when off the pitch. We would have separate lunch rooms. It would have a different feel to it but it’s probably manageable. Hopefully that is the case.”