Royal Challengers Bangalore head coach Simon Katich revealed on Thursday that the franchise is open to playing the 13th season of the Indian Premier League outside India after BCCI indefinitely postponed the season until further notice, owing to the coronavirus pandemic. He also added that pushing the World T20 later in the Australian summer could be an option to fit IPL in the 2020 calendar.
"Whether it would be in Australia (or elsewhere), that's an interesting topic of conversation. There would be a few teams - us in particular at RCB, we'd be very happy for it to be played abroad, because a number of our overseas players are Australian and South African, who really would enjoy these conditions in Australia," Katich told SEN Radio. "It would be interesting to see if that would eventuate but obviously it's one of many scenarios that's being discussed."
IPL did happen outside India once in its glorious 12-year-long history. Back in 2009, it was shifted to South Africa owing to a clash in dates with the General Assembly Elections. And it was for the same reason that half of the 2014 season was held in UAE. In fact, Sri Lanka Cricket, earlier in the evening, had even offered to host the event in their country and will be writing to BCCI soon.
"It's obviously the biggest T20 tournament in the world and the people there love their cricket. But I think they're also realistic to know that they have to sit tight and wait like everyone else in the world, and ride this out however long that takes.
"There is a huge economic side to this in terms of what the IPL generates, not only for the Indian economy but also for the franchises as well, and for the BCCI. I guess the thing that has to be weighed up is … there's probably a little bit of a difference in terms of the IPL. Because of the amount of eyeballs that are on the IPL in India when it's on in April and May, it is a scenario where it is potentially still very commercially viable being played with empty stadiums, so that's something no doubt they'll be weighing up. In the past there's been talk of ratings figures of 80 million people watching games. At the same time, there's obviously a lot of health regulations that need to be followed to make sure that no-one's endangered, whether that's the public or the players and support staff."
Reports hint that BCCI are targetting the later half of the year to stage the IPL, but for that they would have to skip the Asia Cup in Dubai, while Cricket Australia and ICC would have to shift the World T20 slated to begin from October. Katich feels that the latter option could be considered.
"Potentially there's a chance to host it later in the summer, like the (recent) Women's T20 World Cup (which was held in February), and whether that's an opportunity to re-jig things. It'll be interesting to hear those discussions [which are] probably taking place at the moment and whether that's logistically possible with the FTP the way it is. But I'm sure that a T20 World Cup is a priority for all the organisers at the moment, to try and make sure that goes ahead at some point in the Australian summer given that we're hosting it," he added.
