BCCI confirms postponing summer tours of Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe due to COVID-19

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday in an official statement announced that the Indian cricket team will not travel to Sri Lanka or Zimbabwe for their scheduled tours this summer amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Virat Kohli's Team India were scheduled to tour Sri Lanka this month for a six-match limited-overs series followed by the tour to Zimbabwe in July. The postponement of both the tours comes after the Sourav Ganguly-led BCCI already postponed the much-anticipated IPL 2020 indefinitely, which was slated to begin in March. 

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BCCI postpones India's tours of Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe

Sourav Ganguly's BCCI released a statement on Friday confirming the postponement of the tours. The statement signed off by Honorary BCCI Secretary Jay Shah said that the Indian cricket board will organise a camp for its contracted players only when it is completely safe to train outdoors, referring to it's earlier statement on the same lines. While the BCCI remains keen to resume international and domestic cricket as soon as they can, the Sourav Ganguly-led board will take no risks that will jeopardise the efforts put in by the central and State governments to control the spread of the coronavirus.

The BCCI statement also said that the Sourav Ganguly and the other office members have been constantly taking note of advisories issued by the Indian government and will continue to study and evaluate the changing situation.

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The coronavirus pandemic has seen the cricket calendar being brought to an abrupt halt with the IPL 2020 cancelled and has also cast a doubt on the future of the T20 World Cup. Furthermore, major bilateral series across the globe have been cancelled, leaving fans and players without any cricketing action. The West Indies tour of England is likely to be the first bilateral series after the coronavirus enforced break, with the Windies already in the UK a month prior to the start of the tour. The BCCI plans to hold the IPL 2020 at some point this year and if the T20 World Cup is postponed, the window will be used by the Sourav Ganguly-led board to host the cash-rich mega T20 tournament. 

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