Reports | England’s limited-overs tour of India set to be postponed
England's tour of India looks set to be postponed
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The BCCI are reportedly pondering postponing England’s limited-overs tour of India, comprising 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is, that is scheduled for later this year, owing to the spiralling of Covid-19 cases in the country. New Zealand A’s tour of India, scheduled for August, also looks likely to be cancelled.
Starting from mid-March, Cricket has fallen prey to the deadly predator that is Covid-19 and an innumerable number of series and tournaments, over the course of the past four months, have been either cancelled or postponed owing to the pandemic. Starting with South Africa’s tour of India in the second week of March, the PSL, IPL, England’s tour of Sri Lanka, Australia’s tour of Bangladesh and South Africa’s tour of Sri Lanka have all been affected by the pandemic and there is, in fact, a big question mark over whether it’ll even be feasible to reschedule these series’ at a later date.
Now, as per a PTI report, England’s limited-overs tour of India that is scheduled to take place in September this year looks all set to be added to the list of tournaments that will either be scrapped or rescheduled at a later date. According to a BCCI official, the dismal state of India with respect to the Covid-19 situation has all but put an end to the limited-overs series between India and England that was set to comprise 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is.
"England were supposed to play six games (three ODIs and three T20 Internationals) during late September. Obviously, in the current circumstances, England won't be travelling to India," a senior BCCI official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
The BCCI Apex Council meeting is set to happen on Friday and it is believed that a major topic of discussion will be India's Future Tours and Program (FTP) calendar. The official, meanwhile, also added that New Zealand A’s tour of India, that was scheduled for August, will also most likely be cancelled.
"But I guess a formal announcement will happen once the FTP issue is discussed as it's part of the agenda during Friday's Apex Council meeting. New Zealand A had a tour of India scheduled in August and even that's also unlikely to go ahead,” said the official.
With 939,192 Covid-19 cases to its name, India is the third-worst hit country in the world and the official conceded that, despite BCCI President Sourav Ganguly talking about hosting camps in August, the chances of any cricket happening in India in the next few months look bleak.
"Our (BCCI) president (Sourav Ganguly), in a recent interview, said that they are planning for a camp in August if the situation permits. It's common sense that under these circumstances, no matches can be held," the official added.
Meanwhile, TOI have also reported that there is word going around in English media that the limited-overs matches might be pushed to September of next year.
