In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) could be played in South Africa or Sri Lanka, Cricket Age exclusively learns.
From the last week of December, India is continually witnessing a rise in COVID-19 cases and if things don’t improve in the coming months, the BCCI is mulling to move the cash-rich league to South Africa, where Team India is currently playing three-match Test series followed by as many ODIs, as a backup.
“The board members are extremely pleased with the arrangements of Cricket South Africa on the ongoing tour which is the key reason why we are looking at the rainbow nation as a viable option” a top BCCI official told Cricket Age.
Earlier, South Africa hosted the T20 league in 2009 due to the elections in the country.
In addition, Sri Lanka is also part of Plan B for BCCI to host the cash-rich league. The upcoming season is expected to be the longest-ever with the addition of the two new teams – Lucknow and Ahmedabad.
In the last two seasons (2021 partially), BCCI moved the tournament to the UAE after the rise in COVID-19 cases. However, the board is looking for a new country this time to host IPL.
“We can’t be dependent on UAE all the time so we decided to explore more options, South Africa’s time difference also works out well for the players. Sri Lanka is another option, we can consider,” top official added.
“The place where the team was staying for the second Test is spread over several acres. There were walking tracks and even a pond on the property and that has made things easier for the players who for the last couple of years or so have been confined to their rooms on several overseas tours,” official said.
India, especially in last one week, have seen big jump in Covid cases. Yesterday (January 12) country recorded 2,47000 new cases. It is the first time in last 7 months that country clocked more than 2 lakh daily cases.
