IPL: 'Huge effort' to complete suspended tournament - Nathan Leamon
Last updated on .From the section Cricket
There will be a "huge effort" to finish the suspended Indian Premier League, according to Kolkata Knight Riders and England team analyst Nathan Leamon.
The IPL was halted on Tuesday amid the coronavirus crisis in India and a number of positive tests among the eight teams.
"There are a lot of livelihoods here that rely on it, and they don't want to put those at risk," said Leamon.
"It's just a case of whether the logistics are possible."
There are 31 matches still to play in the tournament, which was originally due to end on 30 May.
It will be difficult to find a suitable time to complete the tournament later this year, given the busy schedule of international cricket.
Speaking to the Test Mach Special podcast from the Kolkata team hotel in Ahmedabad, Leamon added: "There's talk of rescheduling. I don't know if it will come to pass. They are looking at various windows when they might be able to fit it in.
"I'm sure there will be a huge effort made to do it."
Eight of the England players that were taking part in the IPL landed in Heathrow on Wednesday morning to begin 10 days of quarantine in government-approved hotels.
The three remaining players - Eoin Morgan, Chris Jordan and Dawid Malan - are set to leave India before Friday.
Morgan was captain of Leamon's Kolkata team, with Leamon due to fly home in the early hours of Thursday morning.
As the Covid-19 situation in India worsened, interim chief executive of the Board of Control for Cricket in India Hemang Amin last week wrote to the eight teams to assure players they were "totally safe" within their bio-secure 'bubbles'.
However, Kolkata players Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier tested positive on Monday and further positive tests from the Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad teams led to the tournament being postponed.
"It was no longer logistically practical to carry on the tournament," said Leamon.
On whether the tournament should have taken place at all or halted earlier, he added: "My view was always this is an Indian competition, run by Indians, in India, for India.
"Judgements about what should or shouldn't happen should be left for the people for whom this matters."
