Sourav Ganguly: 'Priority' is to host England series in India despite Covid-19 threat

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has said that the Indian board will do everything it can to ensure that the series against England between January and March next year is held in India and the domestic competitions kick off at some stage despite the “fluid” Covid-19 situation.

The “priority is to make this (series against England) happen in India. We will try to make this happen on Indian grounds. The advantage in UAE is they have three stadiums (Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Dubai),” he said in a media interaction addressing speculation that the UAE could host the series given the Covid-19 situation in India, which has continued to worsen.

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The BCCI had recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Emirates Cricket Board for greater cooperation in conducting matches there. “We also have the same facility in Mumbai – CCI [Brabourne], Wankhede and DY Patil [stadiums]. We also have Eden Gardens [in Kolkata],” Ganguly said. “We have to create a bubble. We want to hold our cricket in India, that’s where the game is, that’s where the heart is. But we are monitoring the Covid situation.

“Everything is fluid. It’s been hard for the last six months to keep everything in order. You want your cricket to happen. You want lives to get back to normal, there are players involved. But you also want to have a close look at the Covid situation.”

In normal circumstances, the domestic season would have already started in India. In 2019-20, the BCCI had hosted 2036 domestic games across various age groups in the men’s and women’s categories, but creating a bio-bubble for so many teams across the country would be next to impossible given the virus threat.

“We are monitoring it,” Ganguly said. “We want to have our domestic season. We have all the combinations, situations ready in our mind. We will try and make it happen as much as we can.”