BCCI President Sourav Ganguly was overjoyed with the response that the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has garnered so far despite being a closed-door tournament outside India due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The IPL 2020 edition was initially scheduled to be played in March but following the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus, it was postponed indefinitely.

Later after months of deliberation and deciding not to hold the cash-rich tournament in India amid the peak of the pandemic, the Board of Control for Cricket in India took it to the United Arab Emirates from September 19 to November 10.

“Unbelievable and I am not surprised at all. When we were discussing with Star (official broadcasters of the Dream11 IPL 2020) and all the people concerned – if we have to do it this year and one-month prior to the tournament, we were contemplating, whether this can happen or not, what will be the ultimate result of the bio-bubble and will it be successful,” Ganguly said while speaking on Star Sports Cricket Live show.

“We decided to move ahead with our plan, because we wanted to bring normalcy in everyone’s lives and wanted to bring the game back. I am not surprised with the feedback. This is the best tournament in the world,” he added.

The first seven days of the tournament was watched by 269 million viewers, 11 million more per match compared to the similar time of last year. According to a BARC-Nielsen report titled ‘Television Viewership and Advertising Consumption of IPL-13 2020’, the opening week of the IPL 2020 saw a 15 per cent growth in viewing minutes as compared to 2019.

The IPL 13 has already witnessed many thrilling clashes with matches being decided in Super Overs.

“There have been so many Super Overs, we recently witnessed a double super over, we saw Shikhar Dhawan’s batting, we saw Rohit Sharma, we saw all the young players and we witnessed the comeback of KL Rahul’s KXIP from the bottom of the table,” said the BCCI President.

“You will get everything here! I can bet you that the IPL has been a smashing success this year, in terms of the ratings, the number of people who have watched the game,” he added.

The league stage of the tournament is scheduled to end this week while the playoffs will be played next week, with the final to be played in Dubai on November 10.