The Indian cricket fans were left hurt and hungry when the Indian Premier League had to be postponed after half of the tournament was played in India. Despite the best of attempts from the BCCI to continue the tournament, a rising number of positive cases started alarming the management and the tournament had to be called off.
Now with the tournament kept on a halt for an indefinite period and with the offing of the same looking even more bleak as there are two big sporting events lined up, one being the World Test Championship while the other being World T20, it is highly likely that the tournament will have to be shifted to another country with lesser number of Covid cases.
The country is stuttering and struggling amidst the second wave of the virus and India seems to be at a peak so massive that hope has been very slim. IPL served as a distraction but with the growing safety concerns of the players, it had to be called off.
In this story, we will be looking at four possible countries in which the remainder of the tournament can be played with very minimal risks for the players.
#1 England
England has already offered India that they can continue with the remainder of the tournament in their nation, given the perpetuation of the county cricket in the country at the moment. The nation has also recovered from the second wave of the virus. Though cases are still there, yet it is very well under control and it is expected that the situation will be getting better day by day. However, there is still skepticism over the fact that with the World Test Championship final lined up in England, this may lead to a collision with the tournament and may even cause a certain amount of disruption given the congestion of the schedules.
#2 Sri Lanka
Despite being a small island and India’s neighbour, Sri Lanka has done a decent job keeping the Corona crisis at bay without much hustle. How they have done the unthinkable, still remains a lesson to be learned, however, the T20 tournament conducted by them, LPL, was fairly a decent one and it is hoped that Sri Lanka has got a fair hang of things with the shorter format of the tournament. Now the question is there aren’t many grounds in Sri Lanka and the games will have to be played at limited venues with some exceptional work by the groundsmen. It is still to be seen whether the pitches be strong enough to house matches of such intensity and over such a prolonged span.
#3 UAE
If there is one country that has all the advantage in being the leading nation in conducting IPL, that will be the United Arab Emirates. The country hosted IPL successfully last year and without any ado at all. The way it convened the measures in the bio-bubble, was equally amazing. Now with the fact that IPL can go forward and conduct the remainder of the fray in UAE is a clear spectacle, it will be a matter of some serious and exceptional reasons that the other countries will have to give in order to tip the debate towards them.
#4 New Zealand
If there has been one country that has braved the pandemic in the best of ways, defeating it and rooting it out from the very core, it is New Zealand. An exceptionally hospitable nation and amazing land of the sport, the island can play a brilliant host to the domestic Indian extravaganza. There is also a fair bit of Indian crowds that will be riveted to the ground in case if limited attendance is allowed which can even be beneficial for the organizers.
