New Delhi: Four premier English counties – Middlesex, Surrey, Warwickshire and Lancashire – have expressed interest in hosting the remaining 31 games of the IPL.With India anticipating a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic later this year, the BCCI is exploring a window in September, after the conclusion of India’s England tour, to complete the tournament. India’s tour of England ends on September 14.
According to ESPN Cricinfo, Lord’s, Oval (both London), Edgbaston (Birmingham) and Old Trafford (Manchester) are understood to be a part of the group who wrote to the ECB expressing their interest. “The plans would see the tournament completed in around two weeks in the second half of September,” read the report.
The BCCI is looking at a 20-day window with multiple double headers in order to complete the tournament. A logic that goes in favour of the IPL is that it provides a good opportunity to players to prepare for the World T20, which is likely to be moved to the UAE from India.
Meanwhile, Mike Hussey and Lakshmipathy Balaji, the Covid-19 affected members of Chennai Super Kings’ coaching staff, have been flown to Chennai from Delhi in an air ambulance by their franchise and kept in isolation at a hotel in the city.
Both Hussey and Balaji had tested positive and were left behind as the rest of the team members, who reported negative tests, flew to Chennai soon after the Indian Premier League (IPL) was suspended on Tuesday.
While Balaji will then leave for home, Hussey will most probably be flown on a chartered plane to Maldives and stay there for a while before departing to Australia.
All of Hussey’s fellow Australians, who were part of the Indian Premier League — players, members of the coaching staff, commentators and other support staff — left for Maldives on Thursday morning.
They will do a two-week long quarantine before leaving for Australia.
The Australian government has banned flights from India till May 15.
After three Aussie players — Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson and Andrew Tye — had left for Australia earlier during the tournament after getting an inkling that the government would ban flights, commentator Michael Slater and umpire Paul Reiffel tried to leave but couldn’t since the ban was already underway.
Slater later escaped to the Maldives where the rest of the Aussies joined him.