Despite the growing COVID-19 cases in Australia, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly is willing to fulfil the FTP commitment by sending Team India for the tour down under later this year.
However, the BCCI chief remains non-committal about the fate of the domestic season and women’s cricket in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.
See Also: Rahul Dravid says "not easy" creating bio-secure bubbles for domestic matches in India
“The BCCI and the Indian cricket team will continue to fulfil its FTP commitments. The senior Indian men’s team will travel to Australia for its series starting in December this year and will come back to the country for a series against England starting from February next year,” Ganguly wrote on Thursday (August 20) in a letter to state associations, accessed by Sportstar.
“This will be followed by IPL 2021 in April. The tours of the senior Indian women’s teams are also under discussion and more details will be shared shortly.”
The itinerary for India’s tour of Australia is far from being finalised with the pandemic being on the rise in several parts of the country.
According to the tentative schedule released by CA in May this year, India were slated to start the tour with three T20Is ahead of the T20 World Cup, which has now been rescheduled. Subsequently, Virat Kohli and company were to play four Tests and three ODIs down under from December 3 to January 17.
The BCCI has temporarily outlined a domestic season schedule, starting from November 19. However, Ganguly didn’t even mention it in his letter.
“In the domestic cricket context, we are currently in the off season and the BCCI is making all efforts to ensure that domestic cricket resumes as and when the conditions permit. The health and safety of players and all other involved in domestic cricket is of utmost importance to BCCI and we are constantly monitoring all aspects,” he wrote.
“All Members will be duly informed about the future course of action and suggestions will be taken before we resume domestic cricket. We are hopeful that the Covid-19 situation will improve over the next few months and we will be able to start domestic cricket in a safe and healthy environment.”
(Inputs from Sportstar)
