IPL 2021: Hosting remaining games a real challenge, says Rajasthan Royals owner Manoj Badale

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has had to be suspended for the first time in its 13-year history following multiple positive COVID-19 cases among players as well as coaching staff, with the BCCI so far not giving any hint on when and where the league will have its remaining games played out.

While the cricketing fraternity continues to speculate over the fate of the 14th edition of the league, which witnessed only 29 of its 56 scheduled league stage matches being completed before being brought to a standstill, Rajasthan Royals owner Manoj Badale feels hosting the remaining games of the season will be a "real challenge" given the strain of a packed calendar as well as the uncertainty over location given overseas players are unlikely to travel to India until the COVID-19 crisis de-escalates.

"I think the challenge is just finding a space in the calendar. In my view the players are already playing too much cricket, the calendar’s incredibly packed and particularly this year after COVID, boards are trying to get as many competitions and as many Test matches in as possible. So I think it’s going to be a real challenge," Badale said in a webinar organised by the franchise titled IPL 2021: Behind the Noise on Thursday, which was also attended by batsman Jos Buttler and Director of Cricket Kumar Sangakkara.

File image of Rajasthan Royals owner Manoj Badale. Sportzpics

The headache for the organisers began ahead of the 30th game of the season between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) when the news of two players — later revealed to be Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier — testing positive for the dreaded virus started doing the rounds.

Just when a sense of unease began in the camps across different cities, more positive cases followed; Delhi Capitals spinner Amit Mishra, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) bowling and batting coach Laxmipathy Balaji and Michael Hussey as well as a host of ground staff and broadcast team members. In addition to Chakravarthy and Warrier, Tim Seifert and Prasidh Krishna too tested positive from the KKR camp.

On 4 May, with the bio-secure bubble breached and cases spreading fast, the BCCI decided to make the suspension of IPL 2021 official.

Sangakkara, who had joined the franchise as its Director of Cricket ahead of this season, backed the BCCI's decision to suspend the tournament saying it was the right thing to do.

"To call off the tournament when they did was the right call and to focus all that energy, resources and time to really combat tangibly what is a global threat, threatening the health, well-being and lives of all those people who were fans of cricket and across the entire society," said the former Sri Lanka captain and batting legend.

Sanju an authentic leader

Sanju Samson, who was announced as the captain during the player auction after the franchise decided to part ways with Steve Smith, was supposed to attend the webinar along with Buttler, Sangakkara and Badale, but could not due to a family health emergency. The Kerala wicketkeeper-batsman, who has seven T20I appearances for India to his credit, though received praise for his leadership this season from his senior teammate Buttler,

"I really enjoyed playing under Sanju’s captaincy. I don’t think it changed him at all as a person. I think Sanju is a guy… quite a free spirit, a very relaxed guy, and he tried to get that across to the team, that’s how he wanted us to play as a side. So I think it was a great learning experience for him and I think now as the tournament was going along in the halfway stages, really growing into the role and looking to, as a side, to sort of start to put together some better performances and more consistent performances towards the end of the season.

"I think it’s really important as a leader to be authentic, and I think Sanju was very much that," added the Englishman, who has been with the franchise for more than three seasons now.

Buttler also produced one of the standout knocks of the curtailed season, smashing a match-winning 124 off 64 balls against the Sunrisers Hyderabad to help Rajasthan post a humongous 220/3 on the board that the opposition fell short of by 55 runs. Despite starting slow — his strike rate touching 100 at the end of the powerplay — Buttler managed to zoom ahead in the middle overs while forging a massive second-wicket partnership with his skipper, and teed off in the slog overs to finish with the highest score of the tournament at that stage.

Jos Buttler celebrates after bringing up his maiden IPL century in Rajasthan Royals' home game against Sunrisers Hyderabad on 2 May. Sportzpics

When asked if he would rate that knock as his greatest T20 innings of all time, Buttler replied in the negative, instead picking his 53-ball 94 at the Wankhede Stadium against his former franchise the Mumbai Indians.

"It was obviously a great day for me and was really nice to score my highest score and get back into some form. I had been battling for a few months really and was not feeling quite comfortable at the crease and working closely with Kumar and Trevor Penney (lead assistant coach) to try and unlock a few things and started to see that obviously in that innings.

"If it’s the best I’ve ever played, I’d probably say no I don’t think it is. I think at the start of the innings, I was still struggling to time the ball and it certainly wasn’t the best I’d ever felt in the middle or the most fluent I’d ever felt. Obviously, it’s a great score, and the back half of that innings managed to score really well. It was a small ground and put together a great partnership that allowed us to really attack.

So, that was a huge benefit, but I always think I look back to the game at the Wankhede against Mumbai Indians in 2018 is probably the best T20 innings I’ve ever played," added Buttler.