Sports fans won't be cheering for their favorite players and teams in the stadium this IPL! Former Indian Cricketer and BCCI President Sourav Ganguly hinted at the option of having no spectators in the stadium boxes, as crowds into the venues pose a potential 'risk' that a big tournament like the IPL can't process right now.
The BCCI Secretary Jay Shah announced that a segment of the initial half of IPL will be played behind closed doors. This decision was contradicted as BCCI allowed both Chennai and Ahmedabad venues to fill up to half of their capacity for the four-Test series against England.
"Don't know yet, depends on the situation," Ganguly spoke in an interview with India Today on Monday. "It's [IPL] slightly different than a bilateral [series]. If you open up to crowds, teams are playing in middle; teams are practicing outside as well. A lot of these stadiums have practice pitches outside, and teams practice there because they play every day. So to open it up to crowds, you expect them to get closer to the practicing teams. So that could be a bit of a risk." It is the second time IPL is happening during the pandemic. According to Ganguly BCCI had adopted a similar policy even in 2020 when the IPL was played in the UAE. "Dubai also was the same: we started closed doors and expected to open out to the crowds, but since it went so well, we didn't take the risk of having crowds back, so we'll see."
India will be hosting the 16-team men's ICC T20 World Cup probably in late October and could be a reason to take precautions for IPL. IPL has shortlisted six venues - Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, and Ahmedabad - for the 52-day tournament involving 60 matches. For teams' safety IPL has ensured the eight teams will travel just thrice.
According to Ganguly, the IPL travel plans have been strategically planed taking cues from the India-England series, the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and the Vijay Hazare Trophy. "We've done it in clusters," he said. "So there will be three flights maximum for every team, hopefully, we'll manage. Because, see, with the England tour, India have gone to Chennai, Ahmedabad and will go to Pune. And also the domestic teams [would've traveled to a couple of venues - one for group stages and another for knockouts]. We're trying to do it that way only. Hopefully, it'll be fine, the numbers are much less, it's a lot better but fingers crossed." Sourav Ganguly has great hopes for the upcoming IPL tournament and appears optimistic about BCCI's plans for upcoming matches.