Only seeing Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah in action when India tours England is ‘heartbreaking’ for the mayor of London Sadiq Khan. He wishes to closely watch MS Dhoni and his team Chennai Super Kings and hence wants to bring the Indian Premier League (IPL) to the British capital.
“The idea of only seeing (Virat) Kohli or (Rohit) Sharma or (Jasprit) Bumrah when the Indian team comes is heartbreaking,” he told the AP. “I want (Mahendra Singh) Dhoni in London with Chennai. That’s why I am really keen on working with Surrey and others to get IPL to London.”
The mayor said he is working with London-based cricket team Surrey about the feasibility of getting IPL franchises to play in London, saying the city has benefitted from having NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball teams come across the Atlantic for games in recent year.
“I want us to be the undisputed sports capital of the world,” said Khan, who is seeking re-election next month for a second term as mayor.
The 14th edition of the IPL is currently going on in India. The tournament took place in UAE last year due to the pandemic restrictions in India.
Khan, said there can be friendly matches of IPL franchises in London for starters.
“If, at first, they are friendly matches, exhibitions, so be it. But wouldn’t it be great to have some of these great teams like Rajasthan Royals playing in London?”
Khan said he was in the process of trying to persuade the England and Wales Cricket Board to come on board, ahead of taking the plans to the IPL and the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
“One of things we have to do is explain to IPL the benefits other sports have got from coming to London,” Khan said when asked about the prospect of hosting IPL games in British springtime. “These are the same conversations we were having with the MLB commissioner, the American football commissioner.
“If the idea of having 90,000 fans at Wembley to watch Anthony Joshua versus Wladimir Klitschko (in a world heavyweight boxing fight in 2017) was quite scary, we pulled it off. I’m sure we can pull cricket off as well. That’s why we’ve got to be ambitious.”
