Indefinite postponement leaves IPL fate in balance
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has indefinitely postponed this season’s Indian Premier League (IPL) because of the extension of the lockdown announced by the Indian government on Tuesday.
Although an official statement is yet to be released by the Board, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation on Tuesday that the lockdown has been extended, means that the mega-rich franchise league will have to wait.
The eight franchises — champions Mumbai Indians, runners-up Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Capitals, Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and the Sunrisers Hyderabad as well as the broadcasters and other stakeholders have already been informed on the development, a BCCI official said.
The lockdown was to come to an end on April 14 but has now been extended to May 3. The IPL was scheduled to begin on March 29 but was postponed to April 15 because of the lockdown due to the global Covid-19 pandemic. The tournament was to end on May 24.
“We have to fight the pandemic and there is no choice for now,” a BCCI official told IANS.
“These are extraordinary times. We can’t talk about cricket and IPL at the moment so it has been indefinitely postponed and franchises have been informed about it,” the functionary said.
A franchise official confirmed the news. “Yes, the BCCI has informed us and we also believe that there are no two ways about this that at present we cannot have an IPL. Let us hope for the best and hopefully we can have one later in the year when things return to normalcy,” the official told IANS.
The current lockdown has meant that state as well as international borders have been sealed and banned flights from arriving.
The BCCI was to hold a meeting on Monday but it did not take place, with the Board waiting on Modi’s address to decide on the tournament’s fate.
BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had said on Sunday that they would continue to keep monitoring developments.
“But practically speaking, when life has come to a standstill everywhere in the world, where does sport have a future in this,” Ganguly had said.
With the traditional April-May window now out of the question, the other options are finding a different window between September-October preceding the T20 World Cup to be held in Australia from October 18 to November 15.
Another option is a shortened IPL of five or six weeks.
But there are even murmurs that the tournament might not take place at all this year because of the international schedule as well as involvement and the availability of foreign players.
Like, Australian vice-captain Pat Cummins had said, it is a holding pattern for now.