IPL 2022: BCCI considering moving tournament overseas; first option to hold it in India only

India reported 1,59,632 new Covid-19 infections on Sunday, January 9.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) is pondering over the venue of the upcoming IPL 2022 given the rising cases of COVID-19 in India, due to the new Omicron variant. While the board wants to host the whole tournament in the country itself, but is not ruling out moving it overseas.

The IPL 2021 was also held in India, but the second wave of COVID affected by the Delta variant led to the tournament being paused in May and then resumed in September in UAE.

The source said that the board is monitoring the COVID-19 situation closely and no decision has been taken as of now with regards to venues for the tournament. The source also told Sports Tak that for now, the board is prioritizing holding the auction ahead of the tournament.

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Though officially the dates of IPL 2022 have not been announced, the tournament is reported to begin in late March, early April with the mega auction taking place in February.

When asked what the plan is if the number of cases spikes around the time of the tournament, the source said that the team is working on the plan will have to see that what guidelines the state governments issue and a call will be taken accordingly.

"We are exploring all options which include overseas IPL as well. But our focus is to host IPL in India for sure. As of now, our priority is the auction, we will soon take a call," the source told Sports Tak.

The BCCI had to move the entire IPL 2020 tournament to UAE after the COVID pandemic began in March in India, that year. Even this year, the board postponed all upcoming domestic tournaments, including the Ranji Trophy, due to the pandemic.