Remainder of IPL 2021 can’t happen in India – Sourav Ganguly

The Board of Control for Cricket in India president has revealed that the remainder of IPL 2021 can’t happen in India because of the deadly second wave of coronavirus. The Indian board were able to successfully host the tournament in IPL 2020 in the UAE but they couldn’t repeat the same success in 2021 while trying to host the event in India.

Ganguly added that it is difficult to comment what slot can be found to host the remaining matches. The former Indian skipper had earlier stated that they would try to host the event before the T20 World Cup and it was also reported that BCCI is targeting the September window to host the rest of the IPL.

Meanwhile, India has been hit hard by the second wave of Covid-19 as more than 4 lakh cases are getting reported on a daily basis. The country has recorded 2.23 crore cases thus far.

Ganguly feels it is difficult to host the IPL in India because of the quarantine protocols and the team will play three ODIs and five T20Is against Sri Lanka after the WTC final

“No. India is supposed to go to Sri Lanka for three ODIs and five T20Is. There are lots of organisational hazards like 14-day quarantine. It can’t happen in India. This quarantine is tough to handle. Too early to say how we can find a slot to complete the IPL,” Ganguly told Sportstar

On the other hand, a group of English counties have offered to host the IPL in September. Furthermore, Sri Lanka cricket have also extended a helping hand towards the BCCI to host the IPL. Moreover, UAE is also one of the options for BCCI to host the event.

Ganguly added that people will have a lot of things to say in any case.

“You can say that now in hindsight that the IPL should have been called off earlier. Mumbai and Chennai (legs) did not have cases. Only when the IPL reached Delhi and Ahmedabad did the cases rise. People will say a lot of things in any case.

“The English Premier League had so many people affected. But they could reschedule the matches. But you can’t do that with IPL. You stop it for seven days and it is done. Players go back home and then the process of quarantine starts from scratch,” he added.

“As I said, we would have continued if there were no cases. We would have completed the IPL. The players were in the bubble and there were no crowds at the venues. Players were not getting infected. Once the players got affected, we called it off. Look at leagues going around the world. They have had Covid cases, but they have continued.”