Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) Director of Cricket Operations, Mike Hesson, has expressed his optimism about the fate of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and said that he remained hopeful that the competition would take place this year.
The IPL 2020, which was scheduled to be played from March 29 was earlier postponed to April 15 before it was suspended due to the crisis caused by the novel coronavirus till further notice.
“We’re still really hopeful that things will evolve and there will be an IPL this year and if it happens, then I can assure you that RCB will be ready,” an optimistic Hesson said on Star Sports show ‘Cricket Connected’ as quoted by PTI.
“We were obviously a week away from coming into camp, like everybody else, feeling well advanced in terms of our planning.
“Quite rightfully, everything has been put on hold and everybody is going about their work. There are obviously other priorities at the moment that people are focussing on,” added the 45-year-old.
Meanwhile, there have been various media reports suggesting BCCI is mulling alternative windows like August-September and October-November to stage the 2020’s edition of the cash-rich tournament. But all of the speculations lacked an official backing as the fate of IPL continues to hang in doubt.
But the BCCI treasurer quashed all the “media speculations” and said that the board would only think about the IPL after the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic gets over.
Dhumal also said that there was no clarity if any foreign players would agree to travel to India even if the cash-rich tournament is hosted.
“We haven’t planned anything as of now. We can’t think of IPL getting back yet. Players coming in from other countries, whether they’ll be willing to come here and be quarantined for two weeks and play IPL is not known,” Dhumal said as quoted by Australian daily Sydney Herald.