Reacting for the first time ever since the news of multiple Chennai Super Kings squad members including two cricketers testing positive for Covid-19 broke out, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said it has to be seen whether three-time champions CSK can start IPL 2020 as per the schedule.

IPL 2020 is slated to begin from September 19 in the UAE for which all eight franchises with their support staff and players have settled in either Dubai or Abu Dhabi.

Things were going as per plans before Friday night when it was confirmed that an India pacer who is a member of the CSK squad and a few other members of the team had tested positive. A day later another cricketer of CSK reported positive.

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BCCI confirmed that after several rounds of testing, 13 people have tested positive for Covid-19 which caste a shadow on the timely start of the 13th edition of IPL, the schedule for which is yet to be released by the board.

“I cannot comment on the situation of CSK. We will see if they can start as per schedule. I hope the IPL will be conducted well. We have a long schedule for the tournament and I sincerely hope everything will go on just fine,” Sourav Ganguly told the Times of India.

CSK’s worries don’t end there. Their highest-run scorer Suresh Raina decided to fly back home and give this years’s IPL a miss citing personal reasons.

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“Senior spinner Harbhajan Singh who is in India and did not take part in CSK’s preparatory camp in Chennai (Aug 15-20) is worried whether to participate in the tournament or not,” a source close to the player said. He is expected to join the team in the UAE on Tuesday.

Many players, mostly foreigners, are yet to join their teams in the UAE, and some among them are bound to be in a dilemma like Harbhajan whether or not to play amid the pandemic. The league was first postponed from April-May and then shifted out of India.

Ganguly, who was shooting for a commercial film at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, however, said people will have to accept the new reality.

“The entire world is coping with the crisis. Football and cricket matches are being conducted to empty stadiums globally. We will also have to accept that reality.

“I have started working and do our work. I am not a full-fledged sportsperson anymore – I am half-and-half. I am balancing between family, cricket, BCCI and media work,” he said.