The BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has insisted that the decision to host the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) was not a mistake.
This comes after the IPL 2021 was postponed indefinitely due to the outbreak of Coronavirus cases in team bubbles. Four players, a couple of coaches, and other staff members were found COVID-19 positive.
The IPL was only called off because the number of cases "has just gone through the roof", the Board of Control for Cricket in India president told the Indian Express in an interview released on Thursday. India's caseload has gone from 13 million to 21 million since the tournament started on 9 April, with record numbers of cases and deaths now being reported each day.
IPL 2021: Foreign players disappointed to leave the tournament early because of COVID-19 pandemic
Nearly all the foreign stars have since left. Australian players, umpires, and coaches were expected to arrive in the Maldives on Thursday to wait until they can return home without breaking a contentious ban on people who have been in India.
Asked whether it was a mistake to hold the IPL in India, Ganguly said: "When we decided, the number was not even close to this. We did the England tour successfully."
Ganguly also said that the BCCI had mulled holding the IPL 2021 in UAE as well as the IPL 2020 happened. However, the board stuck with India because the cases were "nothing".
"It has just gone through the roof in the last three weeks. We discussed about the UAE but then decided to do it in India," he was quoted as saying.
"I don't think so. The report we got is that there's no breach of the bubble. How it happened is very difficult to say. How so many people are getting (infected) in the country is also very difficult to say," Ganguly was quoted as saying.
He added that "professional hands" had been managing the bio-bubble, but no sport could be pandemic-proof. Ganguly highlighted how there had been cases in the English Premier League football when Britain was suffering a major surge late last year.
"Manchester City, Arsenal players got infected. Matches got rescheduled. Because their season is six months long they can do it. But our season is tight. Since we have to (release) players to their respective countries, rescheduling was difficult,” Ganguly signed off.
(AFP inputs)
