No Fans In IPL 2021? BCCI President Sourav Ganguly Says Opening Up Of Stands During IPL “Could Be A Risk”

Sourav Ganguly hinted that the entire tournament would be played behind closed doors as a “huge” tournament like the IPL cannot “risk” allowing crowds amid the pandemic.

Speculations were made that only a limited number of fans would be allowed inside the stadiums during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 as BCCI allowed 50% stadiums to be filled during the recently concluded Chennai and Ahmedabad Test against England. But all that talk needs to be halted as Sourav Ganguly, in a recent interview to India Today hinted that IPL will be played behind closed doors without fans just like the way it happened in the UAE in 2020.

Ganguly said, "IPL is slightly different than a bilateral series. If you open up to crowds, there are teams playing in middle, there are teams practicing outside as well. Lot of these stadiums have practice pitches outside, and teams practice there because they play every day. So to open it up to crowds, you expect them to get closer to the practicing teams. So that could be a bit of a risk." This won’t be the first time IPL will take place like this; in 2020 also IPL took place without any fans being present in the stadium. "Dubai also was the same: we started closed doors and expected to open out to the crowds, but since it went so well, we didn't take the risk of having crowds back, so we'll see," Ganguly added.

Earlier, IPL announced the six venues for the IPL this year, viz – Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Delhi. Unlike the usual format of IPL, this time each team will only travel thrice due to the travel restrictions amid pandemic.

"So there will be three flights maximum for every team, hopefully we'll manage. Because, see, with the England tour, India have gone to Chennai, Ahmedabad and will go to Pune. And also the domestic teams would've travelled to a couple of venues - one for group stages and another for knockout. We're trying to do it that way only. Hopefully it'll be fine, the numbers are much less, it's a lot better but fingers crossed.

It's a huge tournament. The BCCI did it successfully in Dubai and hopefully we'll be able to get through this time as well," the BCCI President said.

Keep following ABP News to know if there’s an official confirmation about the crowds being allowed during the IPL 2021.