The coronavirus pandemic has brought the entire world to a complete halt and the sporting arena is one the most affected domains. Almost all sports including cricket have either been postponed or cancelled as there is no clarity on when the virus will completely subside.
While the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) has already been postponed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), there is still no clarity on the status of the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup. The tournament is originally scheduled to be played in Australia in the months of October-November.
Meanwhile, BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal in an interview with Sydney Herald has also expressed his doubts over the forthcoming edition of the T20 World Cup. He went on record saying that it will be “difficult” to host the tournament as scheduled.
Dhumal stated that the players have been away from cricketing action for a long time and it will be a difficult call for every cricket board to send their players to play a tournament like World Cup without match practice and not being match ready.
“They will have been out of cricket for a long time. Would you want to be without training for that long and straight away go and play [the] World Cup?” he said.
“That is a call every board has to take. It seems to be difficult,” Dhumal added.
The BCCI treasurer also made it clear that Team India will be following all the travel guidelines and security measures once the team is allowed to travel overseas.
Moreover, the players might have to practice self-isolation for a couple of weeks when they travel to another country and the Indian players will follow all norms and conditions like these that will be in place the lockdown ends.
“There is no choice – everyone will have to do that. You would want to resume the cricket.”
“Two weeks is not that long a lockdown. That would be ideal for any sportsman because when you are in quarantine for such a long period, then going to another country and having a two-week lockdown it would be a good thing to do. We’ll have to see what the norms are post this lockdown.”
Commenting on the future of the IPL, Dhumal stated that the board is yet to take any decision regarding the tournament.
“We haven’t planned anything as of now. We can’t think of IPL getting back yet,” Dhumal said.