BCCI president Ganguly non-committal on domestic season

The BCCI has provisionally drawn a domestic season schedule, starting from November 19. But Ganguly didn’t make a mention of it in his letter to state units.

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly at the headquarters in Mumbai before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Sourav Ganguly, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president, has reiterated India’s commitment to tour Australia starting December, but has remained non-committal about the fate of the domestic season and women’s cricket in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.

“The BCCI and the Indian cricket team will continue to fulfil its FTP commitments. The senior Indian men’s team will travel to Australia for its series starting in December this year and will come back to the country for a series against England starting from February next year,” Ganguly wrote on Thursday in a letter to state associations, accessed by Sportstar .

“This will be followed by IPL 2021 in April. The tours of the senior Indian women’s teams are also under discussion and more details will be shared shortly.”

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At the moment, the itinerary for India’s tour Down Under is far from being finalised with the pandemic being on the rise in Victoria and South Australia. As a result, there are murmurs in the Australian cricket circles that India could play matches only in Sydney and Perth.

The BCCI has provisionally drawn a domestic season schedule starting from November 19 to March 10. However, Ganguly didn’t even make a mention of it in his letter.

“In the domestic cricket context, we are currently in the off season and the BCCI is making all efforts to ensure that domestic cricket resumes as and when the conditions permit. The health and safety of players and all other involved in domestic cricket is of utmost importance to BCCI and we are constantly monitoring all aspects,” he wrote.

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“All Members will be duly informed about the future course of action and suggestions will be taken before we resume domestic cricket. We are hopeful that the Covid-19 situation will improve over the next few months and we will be able to start domestic cricket in a safe and healthy environment.”

Despite the former India captain referring to the present times as off-season, most domestic teams have started training hard for the domestic season, which usually starts in August. The Duleep Trophy, which is set to be scrapped this season, started on August 17 last year.