BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said that the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 is likely to be held in India “until and unless COVID-19 hits the roof.” With less than a fortnight to go for the IPL 2022 mega auction, Ganguly’s comments are certain to delight the Indian cricket fans, who have been deprived of a full IPL season for last two years – IPL 2020 was held in UAE entirely while last year’s edition started in India but had to be stopped mid-way due to a COVID-19 outbreak and was held a few months later in the UAE. The former India captain also added that the board is planning to host the league phase of the 15th edition of IPL in Mumbai and Pune. Ganguly, however, did not clarify whether crowd will be allowed in the venues.
“It will be held in India this year, until and unless COVID-19 hits the roof,” Ganguly told Sportstar when asked about the venue of IPL 2022. “As far as venues are concerned, we are looking at hosting the matches in Maharashtra – Mumbai, and Pune. We will take a call on the venues for the knockout stages later,” he added.
BCCI are yet to officially announce the start date of IPL 2022 but board secretary Jay Shah had hinted that the tournament is likely to begin towards the end of March.
This IPL will also mark the entry of two new franchises – Lucknow Super Giants and Ahmedabad team – taking the number of teams to 10.
All the franchises will look to create a strong team by picking the right players in the two-day long mega auction scheduled to take place in Bengaluru on February 12 and 13. A total of 590 cricketers will go under the hammer and all eyes will be on big names like Ravichandran Ashwin, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, Yuzvendra Chahal, David Warner, Quinton de Kock, Pat Cummins, Faf du Plessis, Jofra Archer.
33 cricketers have already been retained by the 10 franchises who will now look to build a team around the superstars.
Ganguly also shared his thoughts on India’s premier domestic tournament which is likely to be held in two phases this time around after being cancelled last year.
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“Obviously, we missed one year of Ranji Trophy – the 2020-21 season. It is the most important tournament in India, and we always wanted to organise it. But what the world has seen in the last two years, I don’t think it has happened in anybody’s lifetime.
“So keeping all these things in mind, it was actually a challenge to organise any tournament. We organised the Cooch Behar Trophy and there came the third wave. On the first day itself, 50 players contracted the virus. So, it is not easy. But we are lucky that we can still conduct tournaments. We still have our fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly,” Ganguly added.
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