WHAT NEXT AFTER IPL MESS?
ICC and BCCI are pondering how or if India can host the 16team T20 World Cup later this year
The postponement of cricket’s richest league because of surging coronavirus cases has raised questions about India’s ability to host the Twenty20 World Cup later this year.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) last month gambled on going ahead with its marquee IPL tournament during the pandemic.
But as Covid-19 cases increased closer toward 400,000 a day across India, the tournament’s so-called bio-secure bubble was breached this week when players and team staff started returning positive tests for the coronavirus.
The IPL was postponed indefinitely on Tuesday, leaving the BCCI and the International Cricket Council (ICC) pondering how or if India can host the 16-team T20 World Cup in October and November.
Many of the world’s star players who compete in the IPL were scrambling to depart.
The BCCI assured players it would do everything possible to help them get home but there’ll be difficulties for some. Australia, for example, has temporarily barred travellers from India.
There are 38 Australians either playing, working as coaches or as commentators in the IPL.
Last year, the BCCI staged the IPL in the United Arab Emirates because of the pandemic.
But this year India wanted to bring the tournament back home, at least in part to use it as a rehearsal for the World Cup.
To cut down on travel, the competition was designed to move the teams into two cities in phases. But the cracks started to appear in the bio-secure bubble once the franchises were shifted to Ahmedabad and Delhi — two cities experiencing surges of coronavirus cases — after the first phase of the tournament was completed at Chennai and Mumbai.
On Monday, two players from Kolkata Knight Riders tested positive at Ahmedabad and Game 30 was postponed — the first major delay of the tournament that started on April 9.
On Tuesday, it was revealed that Chennai Super Kings’ bowling coach Lakshmipathy Balaji and one of its support staff members returned positive tests in Delhi and Sunrisers Hyderabad wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha also tested positive and was isolated.
Organisers made the decision to suspend competition indefinitely.
The BCCI is adamant that the IPL will resume once the pandemic situation improves, but windows for the tournament are limited.
It remains to be seen whether India tries to move the IPL to the UAE.
The BCCI has already suggested the UAE as the alternative venue for the T20 World Cup if things don’t improve enough for India to stage the touranment.
“One thing I want to make very clear, it (IPL) has not been cancelled. It has been suspended, it has been postponed, it has been deferred. So it will happen,” BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla told the IPL’s official broadcasters.
“The remainder of the IPL will happen but in due course,” he added.
India successfully hosted matches against England during the pandemic in Chennai and Ahmedabad and has also shortlisted eight cities to host the T20 World Cup. But coordinating a World Cup featuring 16 teams will be a harder assignment again.
India has already reported more than 20 million Covid-19 cases, and thousands of people are dying every day.
“Organisers could have tweaked few things”
Australia pacer Pat Cummins feels the IPL organisers, in hindsight, would have “tweaked a few things” after deciding to host the league in India amidst a raging Covid-19 pandemic.
Cummins, a key part of the Kolkata Knight Riders team, said previous edition held in UAE was incredibly “well-run” and the organisers pushed it “little step further” by organising it at home this year.
The IPL was “indefinitely suspended” on Tuesday, following multiple COVID-19 cases inside the bio-bubble.
Last year, IPL was first postponed and then shifted to the UAE with India being in the grips of the first wave of pandemic.
“Last year we had the IPL held over in the UAE and that was an incredibly well-run tournament,” Cummins told Fox Sports.
“This year, they tried to push it that little step further and have it over here in multiple cities in India. I’m sure looking back they might have tweaked a few things.”
His comments were made before the postponement of the league on Tuesday.
The decision was taken after the virus breached the bio-bubble, infecting SunRisers Hyderabad batsman Wriddhiman Saha, Delhi Capitals’ spinner Amit Mishra and KKR’s Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier.
Chennai Super Kings’ bowling coach L Balaji was also among the prominent nonplaying staff to test positive and later it emerged that batting coach Michael Hussey also returned positive for COVID-19.
There were a lot of criticism for conducting the T20 league at a time when India was facing such a devastating health crisis.
“It’s two different worlds.
We’re lucky, we’re safe, we’re comfortable and there’s people just trying to get basic medical treatment,” the Australian vicecaptain said.
“First thing was to find out whether us playing the IPL was the right thing and basically everyone said, we would be lost without the IPL for three or four hours every night.
“I’m just trying to do my bit. India’s been such a good country to me and cricketers.”
With the T20 event being postponed, the Australian IPL players and support staff might fly off to Maldives in a bid to get home.
The Australian government last week banned travellers from Covid-ravaged India till May 15.