The Board of Control for Cricket in India plans to organise a training camp under a bio-secure environment in Ahmedabad’s revamped state-of-the-art Motera stadium ahead of the scheduled tour of Australia later this year, The Indian Express reported.
The report stated that Ahmedabad was picked as the venue for the camp because of its facilities, which includes a built-in accomadation centre. The National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru also emerged as an option during the BCCI’s Apex Council meeting on Friday.
“We cannot go to the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru as the city is witnessing a surge in Covid-19 cases. Hence, Ahmedabad, with its facilities, is a place where we can hold a training camp under a bio-secure environment,” an Apex Council member was quoted as saying by ANI.
On Monday, the International Cricket Council postponed the T20 World Cup scheduled in Australia in October due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is likely that the players will have a quarantine time of two weeks along with periodic tests.
“We just hope the number of quarantine days gets reduced a bit,” Ganguly told India Today on the proposed tour Down Under. Because we don’t want our players to go all that far and sit in hotel rooms for two weeks. It is very, very depressing and disappointing. We are looking at that, the quarantine thing,” he added.
Cricket Australia have held talks with the England and Wales Cricket Board on staging the series in the times of the Covid-19 pandemic. International Cricket resumed recently with West Indies’s tour of England, where Southampton and Manchester have been picked as venues. The BCCI also plans to host the Indian Premier League with UAE emerging as the likely destination.
“The ECB have been brilliant at engaging with us about their plans and what they’re experiencing currently in running the Test series with the West Indies, and they’re also scheduled to have Pakistan and Ireland before us…there’s no doubt that learnings will be taken from that and we’re in regular discussion with them,” CA Executive General Manager of National Teams Ben Oliver told cricket.com.au.
The Motera stadium can now accommodate 1,10,000 spectators after Rs 800 crore was spent on renovation, making it the largest cricket ground in the world. The stadium earlier hosted the ‘Namaste Trump’ event. India’s tour is seen as a marquee event for CA, who have been badly hit financially in the wake of the pandemic.