IPL 2021: Travelling may have let in the virus in bio-bubbles: BCCI president Sourav Ganguly
BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has said that travelling and playing at six different venues might have let in the virus inside the teams' bio-bubbles in IPL 2021.
The marquee tournament was postponed after the Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals, Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad camps were hit by the virus.
The IPL was almost halfway through but had to be postponed indefinitely as a result of the bio-bubble breach. Sourav Ganguly has said the BCCI would do a post mortem on what led to the breach.
"I really don’t know what led to this situation inside the bio-security bubble. We will have to do a post-mortem and look into the reasons behind this. But travelling could have been an issue. Last year in the UAE, everything was restricted to three venues and within a limited area. There was no air travel involved. Here, we had six different venues," Sourav Ganguly said in an interaction with The Telegraph
Ganguly also raised concerns on the worsening COVID-19 situation in the country, saying:
"You also have to look at the situation around the country. The way the number of people are getting affected on a daily basis is total madness. No one knows what is going to happen tomorrow. Things have gone out of control for everyone."
Delhi Capitals were top of the table, while CSK made a turnaround from last year to be in the second spot in the standings before IPL 2021 got suspended.
It will be interesting to see whether the in-form teams can continue with their momentum whenever the IPL resumes.
Sourav Ganguly hints on the possibility of IPL resuming in September this year
Various reports are making the rounds that the BCCI is looking at the September window to conduct the rest of the IPL matches, which would be just before the T20 World Cup.
Sourav Ganguly also hinted at the same and added that the BCCI would start working on the resumption of the IPL when it would be feasible to do so.
"There has got to be a lot of shuffling. Only a day has passed since we suspended the IPL. We have to speak to other boards and see if a window can be made available before the T20 World Cup... Lot of things are involved, and we will slowly start working on them.” Sourav Ganguly said.
The former India captain said the financial implications would be huge if the IPL doesn't get completed this year.
"If we fail to complete the IPL, the loss will be close to Rs 2,500 crore. That is going by early estimates.” Ganguly said.
At the moment, the BCCI and the IPL governing council are doing everything possible to ensure players get home safely.
The English and South African players have already headed home, while the Australian contingent is being shifted to the Maldives, from where they'll head back to Australia after ten days in quarantine.