The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly has on Wednesday (July 8) announced that the Asia Cup 2020 has been cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
However, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) president Nazmul Hasan has not delivered a statement regarding the cancellation of the Asian showpiece event.
Ganguly confirmed the latest development during an Instagram live session with India Today's Vikrant Gupta, saying: “Asia Cup has been cancelled in September. So, at the moment I cannot say when cricket will resume in India.”
The 2020 Asia Cup was originally slated to be held in the UAE by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in September, but following the COVID-19 pandemic situation, it was speculated that Sri Lanka will host the tournament and now the Asian tournament has been called off due to Coronavirus crisis.
On being asked when Indian cricket is likely to return, the BCCI chief said: “It is very difficult to say which series will India play first. Nobody knows when the coronavirus crisis will end. All we can do is wait and watch. We are fully prepared for whenever cricket resumes in India but the implementation can only be done on the ground. Stadiums are open now but players are not going there because of the virus threat. We are not in a hurry to resume cricket in India.”
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Former India captain further added, “Players health comes first, even if we don't have any cricket for 5-6 months it is alright. We have never seen a situation like this when cricket has to be stopped for 3-4 months. We don't have a fixed target to resume cricket at the moment.
If you ask about the IPL, we don't know when that can be staged because we need to find a window for that first. The T20 World Cup is scheduled in October-November, the ICC is trying that the tournament goes ahead because it generates a lot of revenue for them. Till the time we get clear-cut directions from the ICC about the T20 World Cup, we cannot decide anything on the IPL.”
Ganguly signed off by saying, “We don't have a window for the IPL at the moment. We are going to Australia in December for the bilateral series which is part of the FTP (Future Tours Programme) which cannot be changed. So, the Indian team will play its first full series in December.”
(With India Today Inputs)
