BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has opened up about negative criticism for the Indian cricket board for its decision to continue with the IPL even tens of thousands of Indians died due to the outbreak of the deadly pandemic across the country. Ganguly’s comments came amidst raging criticism for the Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli and his actor wife Anushka Sharma as they announced their fundraiser for the pandemic.
Ganguly was reminded in an interview with the Sportstar website about the criticism from many quarters for continuing with the IPL. He was asked, “What will the BCCI do to counter this negative perception? Do you think the criticism coming IPL’s way was justified?”
Former India captain replied, “There are different scenarios, and it is not always helpful to be wise after the event. We don’t have the advantage. As I said, we would have continued if there were no cases. We would have completed the IPL. The players were in the bubble and there were no crowds at the venues. Players were not getting infected. Once the players got affected, we called it off. Look at leagues going around the world. They have had Covid cases, but they have continued.”
This IPL had to be postponed after a few players tested positive for coronavirus. Foreign players had to immediately fly out to their respective countries. Ganguly was asked if the BCCI was contemplating holding the remainder of the IPL in England immediately after the World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand. He said, “No. India is supposed to go to Sri Lanka for three ODIs and five T20Is. There are lots of organisational hazards like 14-day quarantine. It can’t happen in India. This quarantine is tough to handle. Too early to say how we can find a slot to complete the IPL.”
Earlier, Ganguly was asked to explain how coronavirus had managed to breach the bio bubble of the IPL and infect so many players. He had, however, refused to accept that the bio bubble was not foolproof just because several players were infected by the virus.
