BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has said that the Board is keen to conduct domestic matches and host England during the 2020-21 season despite the COVID-19 situation.
“We are monitoring it. We want to have a domestic season. So we have all the combinations and situations ready. But we are keeping in mind the number of COVID cases as well. We will try and make it happen,” Ganguly, who was named the brand ambassador of Bengal Peerless Housing Development Company Ltd., said on Monday.
“We will go to Australia after the Indian Premier League (IPL). Then England will come here. We are planning to host our domestic season and there is another IPL after that.
“Everything is fluid, it has been hard in the last six months to get everything in order because you want cricket to happen and you want life to get back to normal.”
On hosting England, Ganguly said, “We will try to hold it on our grounds... we have to create a bubble. First and foremost priority is to hold the series in India.”
Bio-secure IPL
Ganguly sounded confident about the smooth conduct of the IPL.
“Nobody was sure how much we could do... But we were determined to host IPL because we wanted life to be back.
“If you look at England, they had Test cricket and lots of county cricket and women’s cricket. It’s a similar sort of situation, a lot of players on different grounds. That’s why it’s similar to having matches in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah inside the UAE.
“It was possible in England, so we were confident that if we could create the bio-bubble and everything properly, it's possible.
“But the only challenge is that for IPL only there are about 300 people in a city… The more the people, the harder it becomes to organise. Touch wood, so far it has been good... I must congratulate the players for the way they have behaved in the bio-bubble because it is not easy just staying in your hotel room. It is a 57-day tournament, so we have some distance to cover. But fingers crossed, surely we will get there.”
On M.S. Dhoni’s lack of form, Ganguly said it was never easy for anyone to play a match after more than a year. “He will take some time to get back to rhythm,” said Ganguly.
We are planning to host our domestic season and there is another IPL after that. Everything is fluid.