If sporting activities will be allowed, it will open the doors for the IPL: BCCI Treasurer

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has welcomed the new guidelines issued by the Indian government. The guidelines for reopening of activities in three phases seem to point towards the resumption of sporting activities in Phase 3. The new set of guidelines has given the BCCI hope to organize its T20 mega-event later this year.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Saturday issued new guidelines while extending the lockdown till June 30, but with more relaxations in non-containment zones.

The new MHA guidelines read, "Based on an assessment of the situation, dates for restarting following will be decided for international air travel of passengers, gymnasiums, swimming pools, social/political/sports/entertainment/academic/cultural/religious functions and large congregations.”

BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal called the development 'positive'. "It’s positive. If international travel resumes, and sporting activities will be allowed, then we can plan for the future," he was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

Staging a national camp for the players to allow them to return to peak fitness levels is some time away. India bowling coach Bharat Arun recently said: “The players would require six-eight weeks, as well as practice games, to become the well-oiled machines they were.”

With a big number of cricketers who are under the BCCI’s central contract namely; Indian captain Virat Kohli, vice-captains Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma – to name a few have all been stranded in their homes in the most affected city of COVID-19, Mumbai.

“As far as getting a pool of players together for a camp, again we will have to wait for things to normalise further,” Dhumal said. “What we can have for now is individual players working in facilities in their respective cities, based on advice from state governments.”

The BCCI’s operations team is in the process of preparing Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for resumption of training in a bio-secure environments; this will be sent out to all the state associations.

[With Hindustan Times input]