The conference call scheduled to be held on 24th March for the discussion of the possibilities of the Indian Premier League tournament between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the IPL franchise owners, was repealed by the BCCI.
The next date of the conference call to take place hasn’t been decided yet. since the BCCI office remains shut and the work from home strategy is being carried out, all the meetings are supposed to be carried out via teleconferencing.
Keeping in view the COVID-19 outbreak, the BCCI, on 13th March, had decided to put off the league till 15th April. But as the number of cases continue to soar and the worsening situation of the pandemic refuses to ameliorate, the board has put off any plans of scheduling the matches this year and to go by the BCCI chief, Sourav Ganguly’s comment, cancellation of the tournament is on the cards and may remain the only option left to be opted if the current circumstances persist in the same fashion. The BCCI has decided to monitor the COVID-19 case until the 31st March.
The board members and the stakeholders are hoping for the things to improve but do not see any prospect of it in the near future. Hence discussion on the event is off the table for now and they are currently looking out for strategies to tackle the financial damage and discussing it with the insurance companies.
“If the Olympics can be postponed by a year, IPL is a smaller entity in that regard. It is becoming increasingly difficult to organize. At this point the government is not even thinking about allowing foreign visas”, a BCCI official quoted, implying that the public health safety in both the country and abroad is of the foremost importance at present and the government is in no way ready to take any chances.
The tournament was originally set to start in Mumbai on the 29th of March, but the outbreak of the coronavirus has left the fate of the event hanging.
