IPL 2022 to be held in Australia? BCCI exploring all options: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is considering hosting the upcoming fifteenth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) overseas due to the abrupt rise in the covid-19 cases in India. The third wave of covid-19 has forced the BCCI to think out of the box, however, the cricket board is still prioritising to host the cash-rich IPL in India itself.
The official sources close to the BCCI say that the board is closely monitoring the covid situation in the country. As of now schedules and venues have not been finalised.
As of Sunday, India reported 1,59,632 covid cases that is 12.4 per cent higher than that on Saturday. Out of 1,59,632, India encountered 3,623 new cases of the highly infectious Omicron variant of coronavirus.
The mega event, IPL 2022, is expected to kickstart in early April 2022. The tournament is foreseen to run for at least two and half month period and the final is expected to be held in the first or second week of June.
The BCCI is not in any hurry to host the tournament. The sources informed that the board firstly wants to see how state governments and central government reacts to the covid situation in the country.
With the surge in covid cases, many state governments have imposed strict night curfews and curbs. Strong penalties have been ordered for any breach in the rules and regulations. Moreover, all the public gatherings have been minimised in order to prevent the mass spread of the virus again.
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IPL 2022 to be held in Australia? BCCI exploring all options.
“We are exploring all options which include overseas IPL as well. But our focus is to host IPL in India for sure. As of now our priority is the auction, we will soon take a call,” said the source.
Ahead of the IPL 2022, the governing body will be hosting the IPL 2022 Mega Auction. The mega event is likely to be held on 12th and 13th February in Bangalore.
It is noteworthy that BCCI, this time, is exploring other options for hosting the IPL except in the UAE. In the last two seasons of the IPL, hosted in the UAE, almost every match became one-sided with the due settling-in in the latter part of the match. The second team to bat gained a fair advantage and BCCI doesn’t want that to happen again.
UAE is surely not considered to host anymore IPL seasons. Australia has emerged as the most probable place to host the cash-rich league. Down Under is an attractive place to play cricket. The crowd support is immense and the grounds don’t support one-sided fixtures.
However, we will have to wait for the BCCI’s call on where it wants to host the IPL 2022. Surely the first priority will be India, but if the situation doesn’t permit, the overseas options will be explored by the BCCI.
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