Bangladesh may host the next season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) or at least some matches of the T20 tournament that overlap dates of Indian parliamentary elections due early next year, an Indian English daily reported on Tuesday.
Quoting a top Indian cricket board official, The Indian Express reported that some of the matches may be held outside of India and Bangladesh and Sri Lanka could be the likely hosts.
When contacted, Nizam Uddin Chowdhury, acting chief executive officer of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), expressed his ignorance about the development.
“We haven’t got any thing official from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI),” the BCB official told The Daily Star over phone.
“We will have an Asian Cricket Council meeting in Chennai on September 14. In that meeting, there might be possibility of any such development,” he added.
The reason for this is the same as in 2009, when the second season of IPL was played in South Africa due to Lok Sabha elections, reports our New Delhi correspondent.
The election dates are not known yet but the BCCI has begun preparation for avoiding possible overlapping with the IPL, which is scheduled to take place in April and May.
“A clear picture will emerge only after the dates for the Lok Sabha elections are announced. Until then, we are considering whether to have a few games in India and then move abroad, or vice versa. Both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are short journeys, so logistically, it won’t be much of a problem,” the BCCI official said.
The current tenure of the Lok Sabha, the lower House of Indian parliament, ends in May 2014 and if the election is not brought forward, the IPL will coincide with campaigning and voting, and severely stretch security forces.
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