A couple of days after the indefinite suspension of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly defended the BCCI’s decision to host the 14th edition of the tournament in the country amid the coronavirus pandemic. The former Indian skipper reckons that it is difficult to contain the virus even inside a bio-bubble, cited the example of the virus breaching the Premier League bubble and affecting football players in the UK.
During a recent chat with the Indian Express, Sourav Ganguly said, “The report we got is that there’s no breach of the bubble. How it happened is very difficult to say. How so many people are getting (infected) in the country is also very difficult to say.”
Four franchises, Kolkata Knight Riders, SunRisers Hyderabad, Delhi Capitals, and Chennai Super Kings, reported the positive cases for Covid-19 within their contingents after which the 14th edition of the IPL was postponed indefinitely.
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Explaining the same, Gangulu said, “Professional hands around the world can’t control it (virus penetrating the bubble). When it was happening in England (second wave of the pandemic), there were cases in the English Premier League. Manchester City, Arsenal players got infected.”
The former India skipper mentioned that due to a rigid schedule, BCCI will not find it easy to reschedule games.
Talking about rescheduling, Sourav Ganguly said, “(Premier League) Matches got rescheduled. Because their season is six months long, they can do it. But our season is tight. Since we have to (release) players to their respective countries, rescheduling was very difficult.”
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The BCCI president also revealed that there were discussions to host the 14th edition of IPL in the UAE but since there were not many cases back then in the country, the board had no hesitation of hosting the tournament in India.
