The Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) will have a virtual meeting on Friday. The board will discuss various key points with IPL being at the top on the agenda. Various reports already suggest that BCCI is looking for a window between September-October to play the IPL in UAE.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the domestic cricket schedules are also undecided as of yet. Among the 11-point agenda, which owns by PTI, is a discussion on domestic cricket season.
It is highly likely that the domestic season of 2020-21 may be a curtailed one due to the rapid growth of COVID-19 cases in the country. The Board will also discuss Indian teams upcoming Futures Tours & Programme (FTP).
“Obviously, all options need to be explored. The first option is India but you don’t how the situation will be. Obviously, there is UAE and Sri Lanka but taking out the IPL will increase the overheads. I think the president also recently said that.”
“I don’t think we are still in a position to fix venues in a situation which is so fluid. But the plans and the tentative window needs to be ready so that once ICC makes a formal announcement of T20 World Cup cancellation next week, we can proceed”, a senior BCCI official told PTI on condition of anonymity.
India is scheduled to host the 2021 T20 world cup next year. With the ICC Board Meeting scheduled next Monday, the issue of getting tax exemption certificate from the government will also be addressed to host the event. The delayed white ball tours of Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe also needs to be rescheduled.
BCCI will also have to again restructure the schedule of all age group cricket in the country. Matches for senior men, U-23 men, junior boys (U-19 and U-16), senior women, U-23 women and U-19 girls have all been postponed currently.
“Obviously, the Ranji Trophy schedule needs to be tweaked. We need to discuss whether we can have Vijay Hazare, Duleep Trophy, Syed Mushtaq Ali in one go. Maybe we have to let go of one of the tournaments as considerable time would be lost. We have to fit in the junior domestic events”, said the official.
