The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly has stated that they would like to host then 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) this year and their first priority is to have the cash-rich league in the country itself.
The blockbuster league was initially scheduled to be played from 29 March but the tournament stands postponed indefinitely owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, the BCCI boss has yet again reiterated the board’s desire to have the IPL this year to bring back some kind of normalcy in wake of the coronavirus crisis.
“We want to have it, as I said that cricket needs to be back,” Ganguly said on India Today’s show Inspiration.
“For us it’s off-season at the moment which has actually helped. We finished out domestic season in March and then we had to cancel the IPL, which is the most important part of our domestic season.
“We want IPL to happen because life needs to be back to normal and cricket needs to be back to normal but we don’t have a decision from the ICC regarding the T20 World Cup,” he added.
Ganguly also confirmed that their first priority would be to host the tournament in India before looking out for venues in other countries.
“We keep hearing different things from the media but till actually its officially not told to the board members and the countries, you don’t know what is happening,” Ganguly said.
“But we want to host it, our first priority is India. Whatever time we get, even if we get 35-40 days we will host it.
“Places like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai — these are big teams in the IPL and at this stage I don’t think you can put your hand on heart and say that cricket will happen in these places.
“We were keen to go to Ahmedabad to see the new stadium but I don’t know if we will be able to go there or not. It’s not easy at the moment to say that we are going to host it in India,” the former India captain said.
Ganguly, who turns 48 today, also raised his eyebrows over the prospect of hosting the tournament outside India and the financial and logistical implications that will tag along with it.
“Will it be in India? If it’s not then we think of going out, but where? Because going out becomes very expensive for the board, the franchises because of the currency conversion rates,” he said.
“So we are monitoring it and we are very keen to host it. We have our fingers crossed, we don’t want the year 2020 to finish without an IPL.”