Sunil Gavaskar said conducting a shortened season of this year’s Indian Premier League away from India in September would be a better solution as Australia might end up hosting the T20 World Cup in October having successfully flattened the coronavirus curve.
As the Australia government has formally announced that 25% crowd can turn up for sporting events, the World Cup in October looks more likely than IPL, the former India captain added.
“After the announcement by the Australian government, there seems to be a possibility of conducting a World T20 in October. May be the teams will have to reach three weeks earlier, have seven days of practice games and also 14-day quarantine,” Gavaskar told Aaj Tak.
“If ICC believes that World T20 can happen, then having IPL looks difficult because it could only be held if World T20 is postponed but after the announcement, IPL in October looks difficult,” he said.
However a curtailed IPL in September, may be in Sri Lanka or UAE, is a more practical solution, the legendary opener said.
“September you can’t have IPL in India due to monsoon. But may be in Sri Lanka from early September with teams playing each other once instead of double header. May be you can think of that,” Gavaskar said.
He believes that playing cricket in a post Covid-19 world will be a different experience, especially if there aren’t any fans in the stadium.
“Fans lift your game. The atmosphere is very different when they are present. Obviously players will lose out on that. Also they will be wary of a team huddle, also may be a fist bump after a good shot,” he added.
With PTI Inputs