Following Covid-19 problems in Ahmedabad and Delhi, the Indian Premier League could shift the entire tournament to Mumbai and that will be the only venue. As per a report on Cricinfo, the IPL caravan could shift to Mumbai over the weekend.
This would mean that Kolkata and Bangalore, which were scheduled to host the final leg of the league stage of the IPL may not host the matches, reports India.com.
There could also be a change in the schedule of matches as more double-headers could be the way ahead. The final which was slated to be played on May 30 could be postponed to early June. The biggest obstacle that lies in front of the apex cricketing board in India, the BCCI, is the creating of the bio-bubble to ensure the safety of the players. In Mumbai, all three stadiums – Wankhede, DY Patil, and Brabourne – are in good shape as the first leg of the lucrative league was held there.
It is understood that the BCCI made calls on Monday to the top hotels in Mumbai to enquire about the availability and how efficiently they could execute the SOPs needed to create the bubble.
Earlier in the day, despite the chorus of ‘postpone IPL’ growing – BCCI made it clear that they were not willing to step back at this point in time of the tournament – which was halfway through.
“There is no going back now with half of the tournament done. The news (positive cases in KKR) makes the BCCI’s job more challenging,” a franchise official told PTI. “We have been hearing that a player got infected because he was taken outside the bubble for scans. So, it could have happened outside the bubble. As far as I know, everyone is strictly following the protocols laid out by the BCCI and there was no breach there.”