BCCI Ready To Move IPL 2020 Outside India

While the fate of this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) is still not clear, the BCCI is exploring all the options to make sure that the tournament takes place. The thirteenth edition of the league was scheduled to start on March 29 and end on May 17.

But in the light of the pandemic, the BCCI has suspended the league indefinitely. While the situation is still not very promising, the BCCI has not given up on its hope of conducting the tournament this year. The board is reportedly ready to conduct the tournament outside India too.

BCCI Treasurer Arun Dhumal has said that while the first preference would be to conduct the IPL in the country, the board would not hesitate in staging the tournament outside India too.

“If it is safe for our players to play IPL in India, then it would be our first preference but in case the situation does not permit and we are not left with any choice and a window is available then we can look at moving IPL 2020 out of India,” Dhumal told Times Now.

Conducting IPL outside India is nothing new for the BCCI. In 2009, the entire tournament was staged in South Africa due to general elections. In 2014 too, a portion of the competition was held in UAE due to the same reason. And while the BCCI is ready to take a leaf out of its own book, it is still apprehensive since the pandemic has affected the entire world.

“We have done it in the past in South Africa. We may not want to do it willingly but if that’s the only possibility then there is not much anyone can do about it,” Dhumal said.

“No country is safe from the Covid-19 pandemic so it’s not going to be easy if we decided to shift IPL out of the country and take players to Sri Lanka, Dubai or South Africa. The situation is almost the same everywhere, international travel restrictions are also a problem. Srilanka was okay but in the last couple of days cases have risen there so problem are there, we need to deal with them,” he added.

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