IPL 2021 to shift to England? County clubs offer to host remainder of T20 tournament in September

A number of English counties have offered to host the remainder of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 season in the month of September. IPL 2021 was been postponed indefinitely owing to the rising cases of COVID-19 across teams.

The MCC, Surrey, Lancashire, Warwickshire – based at Lord’s – the Kia Oval (London), Edgbaston (Birmingham) and Old Trafford (Manchester) are part of the group of County clubs to have written to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) while inviting them to extend the opportunity to the BCCI, according to ESPNCricinfo.

The plan is to complete the postponed IPL 2021 in around two weeks in the second part of September.

Apart from completing the T20 tournament, the County clubs have pointed out that top players will get high-quality cricket ahead of the T20 World Cup and will ensure the pitches in the UAE are fresh. Notably, UAE is being tipped as an alternate host for IPL 2021.

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Moreover, the counties are hoping that the games could be played in front of packed crowds.

However, there are a few hurdles to the plan, as stated in the report. While it is hard to predict what the pandemic will bring next, there is still some time before any final call is taken on the T20 World Cup hosting. The quarantine issue of bringing players and staff from around the world into the UK will be a major challenge. But with a number of Indian players being in the UK at the time for the Test series against England, could be helpful.

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Another major challenge is the packed calendar. The Test series between India and England ends on September 14 and the latter is expected in Pakistan for a T20I series less than a month later.

However, the counties are hoping that a window could be managed with some flexibility.