The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has requested its English counterpart to prepone the upcoming five-match Test series by a week to accommodate a window for the remaining matches of the now-suspended IPL 2021.
The first Test starts on August, while the last one will be played in Manchester from 10 September. As per reports, the BCCI wants the series to finish at most by the first week of September. This will free up a 20-day window for the organisers to complete the rest of the tournament.
BCCI president Sourav Ganguly earlier stated that the board will suffer a heavy loss in revenue of up to INR 2,500 crores if the tournament does not happen this year.
IPL 2021 was suspended indefinitely after multiple players and support staff contracted the virus.
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is yet to comment. But several county clubs have already expressed their interest to host the second leg of the IPL 2021.
However, rescheduling the Test series, especially after tickets for multiple days of the fixture are already sold out, cannot be an easy task for the board. This will also pose an immense logistic headache for ECB.
Moreover, it will also affect the much-awaited inaugural edition of The Hundred, due to be held between 21 July to 21 August. Many players from England’s Test squad will take part in the first three games of the tournament.
England will be hosting Pakistan for three ODIs and as many T20Is between 8 July to 20 July. India, on the other hand, will square off against New Zealand in the final of the World Test Championship next month.