IND vs WI: BCCI President Sourav Ganguly confirms T20I series will be held behind closed doors

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has confirmed that the spectators won’t be allowed for the three T20 internationals against West Indies that will be taking place at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Earlier, the Gujarat State Cricket Association had confirmed that the India-West Indies ODI series will be held behind closed doors due to the risk of Covid-19 outburst.

Already, eight members including support staff of the Indian camp have been tested positive for Covid-19 recently and Mayank Agarwal along with Ishan Kishan have been added to the ODI squad. Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Navdeep Saini are among the names to have tested positive for the virus and are under isolation.

The home series against West Indies will start with the first ODI on Sunday (February 6) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad and this will be Rohit Sharma’s first assignment as India’s full-time limited-overs skipper.

There will not be any tickets for general public, says Sourav Ganguly

Ganguly was quite clear with his statement regarding not issuing any tickets for the public in the three T20I games at the Eden Gardens and noted that only the CAB officials and representatives will be allowed inside the stadium. He went on to add about the risk involved with allowing the fans inside and also considering the safety of the players. It has to be noted that the Bengal State Government has earlier stated about allowing 75 per cent of fans at the Eden Gardens.

“Let me put this on record. We are not allowing spectators at the Eden Gardens for the three T20 Internationals. There will not be any tickets for general public. The only people allowed are CAB officials and representatives of the various units.” Ganguly was quoted as saying by NDTV

“In these times, we can’t risk the health of the players by allowing spectators. No tickets for the stands of Life or Associate members will be issued. Obviously, we have the clearance of the West Bengal government but BCCI doesn’t want to risk the health safety of players.” he added

India suffered a whitewash in their previous ODI series to South Africa while West Indies are coming off a hard-fought 3-2 series win against England. The three-match T20I series starts on the 16th of February and will go on until the 20th of February and Eden Gardens has been one of the best stadiums in the world for a long time now.