Mayor of London wants to bring IPL to Lord’s
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, would like to provide the IPL to the city, with Surrey claimed to be in preliminary talks with authorities in India to investigate the likelihood.
London hosts NFL (American soccer) and MLB (US baseball) video games frequently but Khan, who is trying to get re-election as mayor, believes IPL matches in the city – and eventually all around the nation – could tap into a additional assorted audience than the activity does at the moment.
“Surrey are speaking to teams in India and colleagues in the BCCI and IPL,” Khan claimed at a cricket club in southwest London. “The 1st move will be friendlies and exhibition matches. We want to get them likely, perhaps even this year if we make progress as we are undertaking with the pandemic. It has to be Covid-harmless, of program. We have to bang the drum for our city, and activity is 1 way to do this.”
The BCCI have not indicated any need publicly and the only times they have played the IPL outside India is when they have been compelled to by situations: in 2009, they moved the match to South Africa because typical elections have been ongoing in India at the identical time in 2014, for the identical motive, they played the opening two months of the match in the UAE and final year, they 1st postponed the party and then staged the all of it in the UAE because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Rajasthan Royals did engage in a video game towards Middlesex in 2009 at Lord’s in the British Asian Cup but that remains the only video game played by an IPL franchise in the United kingdom. Rajasthan do have a number of England players as perfectly as an academy in Surrey.
“This is part of my prepare to make a better London soon after the pandemic,” Khan claimed. “I know Londoners are hungry to see additional of the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant and, with two of the world’s best cricket grounds in Lord’s and The Kia Oval, London is ideally put to host IPL matches. I know we can see our money verified as the undisputed sporting money of the planet.”
Surrey have lengthy been intrigued in web hosting IPL video games at The Oval and the effects of the pandemic – with counties anticipated to be strike with a put together £100m decline – has sharpened ambitions.
“We would like to provide the IPL to London and other spots of England,” Surrey chairman Richard Thompson not too long ago informed the Daily Mail. “We assume that is the silver bullet in conditions of reaching a additional assorted audience for cricket in this nation.
“We could stage video games in the identical way Jacksonville Jaguars, for 1, engage in legit NFL video games in London. The windfalls that staging the Champions Trophy and Earth Cup delivered for English cricket have been massive and we see the IPL on that stage.
“This could be value tens of tens of millions to the English video game. We have all misplaced so a great deal income by means of Covid that we have to be additional innovative and give cricket that generates profits you would not or else have built. That is why I assume IPL is a no-brainer.”