New Delhi, March 23 (IANS) Rain and chill will greet cricket fans if the Indian Premier League (IPL) chooses England as its new home.
The IPL is scheduled April 10-May 24, but that will be the time when winter is on its last leg in England. Blustery winter conditions with rain can be uncomfortable for the players. Whenever the Indian team have visited England in the early part of the season, they have found it difficult to perform at their best.
The IPL organisers will be in trouble if the rain gods have their way as it could lead to rescheduling of the matches and prove to be a nightmare for the fans, who will have to be content with a truncated Twenty20 match.
The IPL in England could be especially tedious for the Indian players who are literally living out of their suitcases. The only positive, perhaps, for the Indians is that they will be well-acclimatised to defend the Twenty20 World Cup title which will take place in England in June (5-21) after the IPL.
But the players will sorely miss home, as they would fly to West Indies (June 26-July 5) for a one-day series immediately after the IPL and are scheduled to go to Zimbabwe to play a tri-series after that.
Moreover India's ongoing tour of New Zealand, that began Feb 25, will end April 7, just three days before the IPL starts April 10.
'It will be a long tour for us. I hope we will be allowed to take our families,' admitted Yuvraj Singh, Punjab Kings XI captain, Monday.
The IPL, if it takes place in England, will overlap with the domestic season and can overshadow the Test and ODI series between England and West Indies which will run parallel to the Twenty20 jamboree.
The match timings may suit the television prime time in India (4 p.m. and 8 p.m.) but they will be inconvenient to the English fans who will have to watch a Twenty20 game at 11 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon instead of enjoying it after sun-down.
The IPL organisers, thus, are banking on large number of Indian expats to fill the stadiums.
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