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Team India open to be in two-week quarantine to save Australia series: BCCI official - Report
BCCI Treasurer Arun Dhumal, in an interview to the Sydney Morning Herald, said that India are willing to undergo a quarantine period upon reaching Australia. “There is no choice – everyone will have to do that. You would want to resume the cricket,” he said.
The Covid-19 situation leaving the cricketing calendar torn to shreds, and questions are being raised regarding India’s Tour to Australia this year. India are scheduled to travel to Australia for a bilateral series this year, but it remains unclear how the cricketing world would look like the post the coronavirus pandemic. Speaking in an interview to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Board of Control for Cricket in India treasurer Arun Dhumal has said that India are willing to take all the protection measures in order to play out the bilateral series.
Dhumal, in the interview, said that India are willing to undergo a quarantine period upon reaching Australia. “There is no choice – everyone will have to do that. You would want to resume the cricket,” he said.
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“Two weeks is not that long a lockdown. That would be ideal for any sportsman because when you are in quarantine for such a long period, then going to another country and having a two-week lockdown it would be a good thing to do. We’ll have to see what the norms are post this lockdown,” he added.
Cricket Australia had proposed a five-match Test series earlier this year. While Dhumal did not rule out the idea, he indicated that it would be better to play more limited-overs cricket as it may earn more revenue.
“Once we are sure when cricket will resume, then only will we be able to make a final call on that,” he said.
“That discussion [on five Tests] took place before the lockdown. If there is a window available it would be up to the boards to decide whether they wanted to go for a Test match or maybe two ODIs or maybe two T20s. Given the revenue loss they will have on account of lockdown, post-lockdown they will want to have revenue and revenue most likely will come from ODIs or T20s much more than a Test match.”
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“For any board for that matter, there has been a lot of revenue loss on account of this lockdown and COVID-19, so they would need to think about that,” he added.
On being asked about the possibility of holding a T20I World Cup this year, the senior BCCI official said that it will be difficult to hold a global event this year with teams coming out from lockdown.
“They will have been out of cricket for a long time. Would you want to be without training for that long and straight away go and play [the] World Cup?” he said. “That is a call every board has to take. It seems to be difficult.”
On being asked about plans to hold IPL this year, the BCCI treasurer said that the board has not yet made any final decisions on the matter. “We haven’t planned anything as of now,” Dhumal said. “We can’t think of IPL getting back yet.
“Players coming in from other countries, whether they’ll be willing to come here and be quarantined for two weeks and play IPL is not known. How can we think of IPL? This is all media speculation. There is nothing as of now. Once things get clear, then only will we be able to go back to the drawing board and think about re-starting cricket,” he said.
