Sunil Gavaskar Reckons Staging IPL In Sri Lanka Is Feasible In September
Published - 14 Jun 2020, 09:19 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:30 AM
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is still looking like a lost cause as far as hosting in India is concerned. India has been recording more than 5000 cases of COVID-19 each day for the past many days due to which the players’ safety gets compromised if the tournament takes place. Nevertheless, former Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar has other ideas.
The 13th season of the IPL got postponed twice before being called off indefinitely due to the rising instances of the novel coronavirus. The initial starting date was the 29th of March. In other news, the Australian Prime Minister has decided to allow spectators into the stadium with the virus situation being eased. It gives a glimmer of hope that the ICC World T20 could take place down under in October.
Considering all of that and the monsoons in India in September, Sunil Gavaskar suggests that a truncated version of IPL could take place during the same month in Sri Lanka. He implicated that instead of playing each other twice, teams could play once.
“In September, you can’t have the IPL in India due to monsoon. But maybe (it can be held) in Sri Lanka from early September with teams playing each other once instead of double-headers. Maybe you can think of that.” the former Indian captain said as quoted by Khaleej Times.
IPL taking place in October looks difficult: Sunil Gavaskar
The 70-year old went on to say that Australia’s declaration of permitting crowds into the fans has breathed life into the staging of the tournament. In case the ICC thinks that the showpiece event can go ahead in October, then holding the lucrative league the same time seems impossible.
“If the ICC believes that the World T20 can happen, then having the IPL looks difficult because it could only be held if the World T20 is postponed. But after the announcement (of opening the stadiums for fans by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison), the IPL in October looks difficult.” Sunil Gavaskar added.
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