Indian cricket legend and interim BCCI president Sunil Gavaskar believes the Indian Premier League (IPL) will pave the way for the Indian national team to play matches in the UAE.
Speaking in his first press conference since taking over his new position four days ago, the first batsman in the history of Test cricket to cross 10,000 runs was sure the UAE leg of the Pepsi IPL 2014 would be a great success.
“I have just taken over, so I don’t know what the thinking is of the BCCI about that (India returning to the UAE). But surely, when you have a huge event like the IPL moving here, that in itself is a sign that the BCCI is considering coming to the UAE in the future," said Gavaskar, who has been in Dubai the last few days and has held several meetings with the IPL officials, teams and UAE officials.
"How soon…that is something I am not able to say, but having played the game here from the early days in Sharjah in 1981, and having experienced the excitement level and having seen the kind of cricket that was played here, I personally think it is a great place to come and play cricket.
"Whenever the BCCI decides to come and play cricket in the UAE, I’d be most delighted.”
Gavaskar was asked by India's Supreme Court to oversee the running of this year’s IPL after former BCCI President N Srinivasan was asked step down amid charges of corruption and spot-fixing involving his franchisee, Chennai Super Kings, and a few other incidents.'
“I am deeply humbled and honoured that the honourable Supreme Court of India thought it fit for me to take over as the interim President of the IPL,” said the 64-year-old former India opening batsman and captain.
“My first instruction to the team that I have is that I want it to be as controversy-free an edition as possible and when the final is played on June 2, it is cricket which is uppermost in everybody’s mind.
“Of course, it will be a big blow in case there is a controversy. It’s very important for any event, and certainly for IPL, to be controversy-free and to be recognised for the efforts put on the field of play. If ill-luck has it and we still have a controversy, the effort would be to make sure that the events on the field are not overshadowed by the controversies.”
Also speaking at the press conference was Emirates Cricket Board Director Omar Al Askari, who stressed UAE authorities will do their best to make sure there is no corruption during the IPL, and indeed in the future.
“I would like to thank the BCCI and the IPL for coming to the UAE," Al Askari said. "This is a very exciting event and we are looking forward to it and it is a wonderful opportunity for us in the UAE to show how well we can host them.
"One of the concerns that we have been working hard to address as a team is anti-corruption. Nobody wants sports to be tainted, and certainly not in the UAE. I’d like to assure everyone that we are working along with the ICC, BCCI and local officials and all efforts are underway to keep the undesirable elements away from the game.”
Gavaskar said a clean IPL this year could be a springboard for the event to become even bigger and better in years to come.
“I think with what happened with the IPL in the last couple of seasons, just like in cricket, when you are in trouble and you need to put the shutters down and steady the ship, you need to do that with the IPL too,” he said.
“That certainly is the aim of this IPL – to consolidate – so that the future editions can use this edition as the springboard of more exciting IPLs in the future.”
The first cricketer to break Sir Donald Bradman’s record of 29 Test centuries, Gavaskar said his experience as a player taught him that for any cricket tournament to be successful, the foremost factor was the state of pitches, and that he was delighted with the facilities in the UAE.
“I had particularly stressed on the availability of good pitches, because good pitches produce good cricket games. And those watching at the stadium, or on TV, get their money’s worth through good cricket games,” Gavaskar added.
“The BCCI Venue Inspection team have gone to all three venues here and are very satisfied with the pitches, the ground conditions, the practice facilities and the facilities for other match officials.
“The feedback is that the facilities are on par with most of international cricket venues and we have absolutely no doubt that the players will feel at home here.”
