Hosting IPL not a mistake, insists India cricket chief

Former India captain and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly.

India’s cricket chief Sourav Ganguly has defended the attempt to hold the Indian Premier League during the country’s coronavirus emergency, insisting it was not a mistake. The IPL was only called off because the number of cases “has just gone through the roof”, the Board of Control for Cricket in India president told the Indian Express in an interview released yesterday. The BCCI suspended the world’s richest cricket tournament on Tuesday after several players became infected. India is reporting nearly 4,000 deaths and more than 400,000 new cases a day. Nearly all the foreign stars have since left. Australian players, umpires and coaches were expected to arrive in the Maldives yesterday to wait until they can return home without breaking a contentious ban on people who have been in India. India’s caseload has gone from 13mn to 21mn since the tournament started on April 9, with record numbers of cases and deaths now being reported each day. Asked whether it was a mistake to hold the IPL in India, Ganguly said: “When we decided, the number was not even close to this. We did the England tour successfully.” Some fans were allowed into the Ahmedabad stadium for the final two games of England’s four-Test series in March. The BCCI considered holding the IPL in the United Arab Emirates, as it did last year, but stuck with India because the cases were “nothing”, Ganguly said. “It has just gone through the roof in the last three weeks. We discussed about the UAE but then decided to do it in India,” he was quoted as saying. More than 10 players and back-up staff have tested positive since the eight teams started gathering for the tournament in bio-bubbles. It was called off after four players from Kolkata Knight Riders, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals tested positive this week. Press reports said Kolkata’s Varun Chakravarthy may have been infected while undergoing tests in a hospital. Ganguly said it was “very difficult to say” how the coronavirus entered the team bubble. He added that “professional hands” had been managing the bio-bubble, but no sport could be pandemic-proof. Ganguly highlighted how there had been cases in the English Premier League football when Britain was suffering a major surge late last year. “Manchester City, Arsenal players got infected. Matches got rescheduled. Because their season is six months long they can do it,” he said. “But our season is tight. Since we have to (release) players to their respective countries, rescheduling was difficult.” While Ganguly said it’s too early to comment on that matter, he said the BCCI would talk to other boards to see if they can fit the remainder of the IPL in between the end of India’s tour of England in September and the start of the global tournament in mid-October. “There has got to be a lot of shuffling. Only a day has passed since we suspended the IPL. We have to speak to other boards and see if a window can be made available before the T20 World Cup. Lot of things are involved and we will slowly start working on them. If we fail to complete the IPL, the loss will be close to $340 million approx. That is going by early estimates.” He also said that there will be no separate vaccination drive organised for the players by the BCCI. “Now that they have time, they will do it individually since the [state] governments [are] getting the vaccinations done. They all go to their respective homes.”