BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has hinted that the full IPL 2021 season may be held behind closed doors. The IPL 2021 is scheduled to begin from April 9 with RCB taking on Mumbai Indians in the opening match in Chennai.
"Don't know yet, depends on the situation," Ganguly told India Today on Monday. "It's [IPL] slightly different than a bilateral [series]. If you open up to crowds, there are teams playing in middle, there are teams practising 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."
The IPL 2020 was held in UAE and the former skipper suggested that the tournament took place without the spectators there as well. "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."
The IPL 2021 schedule was released recently. There would be 56 matches in total with Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata hosting 10 games each while Delhi and Ahmedabad will have 8. The schedule has been made in such a way that the teams will have to travel only thrice during the tournament.
Mumbai Indians are the defending champions. MI won the 2020 edition of the IPL after beating Delhi Capitals in the final. The Mumbai franchise are the most successful IPL team with five titles to their name.