CHENNAI: A day after BCCI president Sourav Ganguly told Express that a decision on this edition of the IPL will be made public on Monday, franchises were expecting the tournament to be postponed indefinitely. It is understood that the BCCI has told them it is considering every option at the moment, but it cannot commit to hosting the event later this year unless a window opens in the international calendar.
Speaking to Express, Ganguly had said, “Practically speaking, when life has come to a standstill everywhere in the world, where does sport have a future in this,” referring to the lockdown and travel ban in many countries.
As of now, the BCCI has suspended the IPL till April 15. With the lockdown in India expected to continue for at least two more weeks, starting the tournament sometime in May also looks unlikely. In fact, days after the league was suspended, the BCCI and the franchises discussed various other options with regards to starting the league. But with the COVID-19 situation getting worse by the day, likelihood of the IPL beginning this summer looks all but over.
“When we put in the dates, the last cut-off was to start the league by May first week. Though it is still three weeks away, we don’t expect normal life to resume any time soon. It will be impossible to host the IPL beyond May first week, so we are expecting a decision on the deferral on Monday,” a franchise official told Express.
As previously reported, the BCCI will be keenly monitoring the situation in Australia which is scheduled to host the T20 World Cup in October-November. In case that doesn’t go ahead, the BCCI is looking at it as a potential window to host the IPL, but the franchises are not expecting any assurances on this right now.
“There are plenty of things we don’t have answers to and honestly speaking, even the BCCI can’t help because the situation is unforeseen and nobody was prepared for it. Whether the tournament will be staged at a different period or not is too far fetched at the moment. There are other stuff to address,” a top official of another franchise said.
Key among them is what happens if the IPL doesn’t take place this year, as ahead of the 2021 edition there was supposed to be the big auction. There is a school of thought which suggests that in case this edition is cancelled, then the teams should be allowed to continue with the current set of players next year. But whether that receives support remains to be seen.