Cricket Australia (CA), one of the richest boards, is facing a financial crisis at present. Last month they had claimed to lose some 300 Australian dollars due to COVID-19 impact and the possibility of losing the ambitious series with India.
However, they were hopeful for the India tour later this year, and now CA has received positive feedback from one of the top officials of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) regarding India’s tour of Australia.
According to Sydney Morning Herald, Arun Dhumal, treasurer of BCCI, said that the Indian players would go into isolation in Australia for a fortnight before the much-awaited tour officially kicks-off.
Those who are wondering why Indian players have to go into isolation for two weeks, that’s because as per the guidelines, people travelling to Australia have to go into seclusion for half a month.
Also, the probabilities of the Indian cricket team receiving a travel exemption is backed by the fact that New Zealand Warriors – a rugby league team has already been granted the dispensation. This happened because the National Rugby League (NRL) – Australia’s top-level domestic men’s rugby league club competition – is ready to make its return to the field on May 28.
“There is no choice – everyone will have to do that. You would want to resume cricket. Two weeks is not that long a lockdown. That would be ideal for any sportsman because when you are in quarantine for such a long period, then going to another country and having a two-week lockdown it would be a good thing to do. We’ll have to see what the norms are post this lockdown,” Dhumal said.
However, Dhumal was not yet ready to confirm whether the full Test series would take place over limited-over games. He stated that eventually, the boards would decide what to do on this matter. Dhumal also gave hints about the possibility of T20I or ODI series, keeping the revenue factor in consideration. He expressed that profit is most likely to generate from the limited-over matches rather than the red-ball series.
“Once we are sure when cricket will resume, then only will we be able to make a final call on that. Such discussion [on five Tests] took place before the lockdown. If there is a window available it would be up to the boards to decide whether they wanted to go for a Test match or maybe two ODIs or maybe two T20s,” added Dhumal.
“Given the revenue loss they will have on account of lockdown, post-lockdown they will want to have revenue and revenue most likely will come from ODIs or T20s much more than a Test match,” he added further.
The BCCI treasurer further said that the likelihood of T20 World Cup looks difficult as boards might not send their players directly to the global event without proper training.
“They will have been out of cricket for a long time. Would you want to be without training for that long and straight away go and play [the] World Cup? That is a call every board has to take. It seems to be difficult,” concluded Dhumal.
