While the international cricket resumed with the England-West Indies Test series last week, Indian cricket continues to be on hiatus since March due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Since a number of series and tournaments have been either cancelled or rescheduled, the Future Tour Programmes (FTP) will be certainly tweaked.
As per a report published in Sportstar, the BCCI will work on finalising Team India’s revised FTP and the domestic season when it conducts its Apex Council meeting on July 17.
When the Coronavirus rocked cricket four months back, India had to abandon its ongoing three-ODI series against South Africa. The Indian cricket team was slated to tour Sri Lanka for three ODIs and as many T20Is in June-July but that series has been suspended indefinitely owing to the outbreak. A tour of Zimbabwe (3 ODIs) in August has also been postponed for the time being.
Just a couple of days ago, it was confirmed that India’s first home assignment of the season – the limited-overs leg of the split series against England – will also not be played as per schedule. England was supposed to face India in three ODIs and equal number of T20Is in September-October.
Report also claims that the ECB and BCCI executives are discussing about accommodating white-ball games by curtailing one or two Tests when England will tour India for five World Test Championship fixtures in January 2021.
All these factors, besides trying to accommodate Afghanistan ODIs and possibly reschedule South Africa’s abandoned series are set to be discussed at the Apex Council meeting.
It will be interesting to see how the BCCI fulfills its promise to the broadcasters by ensuring the number of games to 17 till March next year.
“Anyway India is not scheduled to play too much at home this season, so it will be difficult to sacrifice on number of games and take a further hit in broadcast rights income,” a BCCI insider told Sportstar.
