Ganguly over the moon with IPL 2020 ratings: World's best tournament!

Picture Courtesy/ Sourav Ganguly's Instagram

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly seems to be totally overwhelmed with the amazing response the IPL 2020 has received in terms of its viewership and ratings.

The IPL 2020 which was scheduled to be played in March earlier this year. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic it was postponed indefinitely and later on went to be rescheduled to September with the tournament taking place in UAE instead.

In an exclusive chat on Star Sports' show Cricket Live, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly talks about how Dream11 IPL 2020 has received great viewership and ratings. He also speaks about his shoot for Hero ISL, the next big sporting spectacle that will commence in Goa, 20th November 2020 onwards. Sourav Ganguly: "Unbelievable, and I am not surprised at all. When we were discussing with Star (official broadcasters of the Dream11 IPL 2020) and all the people concerned - if we have to do it this year and one-month prior to the tournament, we were contemplating, whether this can happen or not, what will be the ultimate result of the bio-bubble and will it be successful. We decided to move ahead with our plan, because we wanted to bring normalcy in everyone's lives and wanted to bring the game back. I am not surprised with the feedback.

Ganguly continued, "This is the best tournament in the world. There have been so many super overs, we recently witnessed a double super over, we saw Shikhar Dhawan's batting, we saw Rohit Sharma, we saw all the young players and we witnessed the comeback of KL Rahul's KXIP from the bottom of the table. You will get everything here! I can bet you that the IPL has been a smashing success this year, in terms of the ratings, the number of people who have watched the game. Also, I just shot for the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) promo and the tagline is, 'Cricket khatam hoga, lekin khel nahi! Hero ISL jald aa raha hai, aur game jaari rahega Hero ISL ke saath'. And hopefully it will be a cracker of a season again." [Cricket gets over, but the games are not over and they will continue with Hero ISL. Hero ISL is coming soon!]

The opening week of the tournament was watched by 269 million viewers, 11 million more per match compared to the like period of last year's edition. According to a BARC-Nielsen report titled 'Television Viewership and Advertising Consumption of IPL-13 2020', the opening week of the ongoing IPL edition saw a 15 per cent growth in viewing minutes as compared to 2019.

The IPL 2020 season has already witnessed many thrilling clashes with matches being decided in Super Overs.

"You will get everything here! I can bet you that the IPL has been a smashing success this year, in terms of the ratings, the number of people who have watched the game," Ganguly added.

Inputs from IANS

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