Days after IPL 2021 was postponed amid the COVID19 surge in the country, the United Kingdom emerged to be one of the front-runners to host the remainder of the tournament. While a couple of counties have come forward to host the truncated league, Hampshire county’s boss has said that it is illegal to host IPL 2021 in England.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is confident to complete the competition and is looking at the possible windows to host the remaining games. As per reports, UAE, UK, and Australia came up as possible venues to host the cash-rich league. As per reports, several English counties have written to ECB for extending the invitation to BCCI for hosting the remainder of the IPL 2021 in September.
Hosting IPL 2021 in the UK is illegal
However, in the latest turn of events, hosting IPL 2021 in the UK has been ruled out. Counties like MCC, Surrey, Warwickshire, and Lancashire proposed the plan of completing the remaining IPL 2021 in two weeks in September. But Hampshire boss has stated that staging the tournament in the UK will be illegal.
“I did hear about the discussion but I am not sure how it can happen. As per the current arrangement, it will be illegal to host the IPL here,” said Hampshire county boss as quoted by Cricbuzz.
England and Wales Cricket Board officials and Marlyborne Cricket Club officials are yet to comment on the same. The Chief Executive committee and ICC met virtually on May 6 but didn’t discuss UK as the potential venue for the IPL. There was a discussion on the cricketing calendar post-2023 at length and cricket in the Olympics was also in the talks.
Meanwhile, UAE is also in the running to host the tournament having successfully hosted the last edition of IPL. They can emerge as the top-runner considering that BCCI is also planning to host the T20 World Cup right after IPL 2021 in the UAE.
