Former England spinner Monty Panesar has reckoned that the BCCI will be putting the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) brand value at risk if it stages the remainder of tournament’s 14th season in England in September as rains leave matches truncated.
The Virat Kohli-led India is scheduled to end their five-match Test series in England on September 14 and there have been talks that month-long window between end of that series and T20 World Cup an ideal time to host the remaining IPL 2021 remainder.
Earlier in May, the 14th season of the cash-rich league was postponed as the Covid-19 cases breached the tournament’s bio-bubble.
“IPL shouldn’t be held in England in September because it will rain a lot there. Too many intervals will spoil the fun,” said the former left-arm spinner on Sports Yaari, a Youtube show.
“If India are not able to control the pandemic, it should be held in UAE because weather conditions play a huge factor. When it rains in England, it plays spoilsport. You will see a T20 match get reduced to 15 overs and then 10 overs. We don’t want that to happen with IPL because the brand will take a hit,” opined Panesar.
“The biggest thing in favour of IPL is that there are completed games in it. There is a lot of excitement in IPL games between 15th and 20th overs as that phase is pretty high-scoring. Authorities should take weather into account while deciding fixtures. Weather in UAE is great,” said Panesar, who played a key role in England winning the Test series in India 2-1 in 2012-13
There has also been reports which have said that the Indian board has apparently made an informal request to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to advance the Test series by a week to provide a window however, nothing official has been said from either of the two sides.