The Coronavirus has taken a severe toll on the cricketing schedule around the world with the majority of the series and tournaments getting canceled. The international cricket just returned after a 117-day break when England hosted West Indies for the first of the three-Test series at home.
Meanwhile, the BCCI is trying to find out a way to host the IPL 2020, which has been postponed indefinitely since March this year. The Coronavirus led to the richest T20 league in the world having to go into hibernation, but with the possibility of the T20 World Cup in Australia being postponed to next year, BCCI is pulling no stops to try and fill that gap with IPL 13.
The BCCI was to have a camp for centrally contracted players from July, but that has also gone for a toss, due to the existing lockdown norms in the country. "Please remember, without the central government and respective state government approvals, the BCCI cannot do anything," say those tracking developments, according to a report in the Times of India.
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Meanwhile, if BCCI sticks to its efforts of hosting the IPL in the later part of the year, it might end up eating into the tour of Australia, which BCCI President Sourav Ganguly confirmed, is going as per plans.
The present (interim) schedule for Australia tour was released by Cricket Australia (CA) with the first Test to begin on December 3. Also, to note is a three-match T20 series that was scheduled ahead of the Tests, to be followed by a three-match ODI series.
"One of those two - either T20s or ODIs - will have to be canceled. Most likely the T20s because the format was put in place keeping the T20 World Cup in Australia in mind. Now, that' not happening, and IPL is. The start of the Test series will also be pushed by a week," say those in the know.
Indian team is also likely to play two warm-up games which may push the start of the first Test to December 10.
"The president talked about a shortened quarantine. What he may have meant was that players will go through two separate Corona tests before leaving for Australia and two tests after landing there and if all are negative, health authorities are indicating that two weeks of lockdown won't be necessarily mandatory. Teams can start practice," say sources.
Apart from this, the schedule for England’s tour to India might also be changed to compensate for the broadcaster.
"Changes will be made to that schedule too. England is likely to play three Tests in India instead of five, followed by five T20s and five ODIs. That will also help compensate the host broadcaster who lost the India-South Africa series in March due to COVID," sources added.
To also compensate for the loss of the IPL window, the BCCI will look to conduct the tournament in March again next year.
While none of the developments can be said definite, but all could materialize within the next two weeks, ensuring the nod from the central government for the IPL.
