As the novel COVID-19 or coronavirus has affected the cricket world, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has hinted to focus on the bilateral series rather than the ICC tournaments following the resumption of the game after controlling the global pandemic.
The coronavirus has already forced to postpone some crucial cricket events, including the famous cash-rich cricket league IPL 2020. The IPL 2020 was initially scheduled to run between 29th March and 24th May 2020, but the pandemic has forced to postpone this tournament, and the BCCI is currently clueless about the fate of the IPL 2020.
The BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal has recently claimed that the cancellation of IPL 2020 can lead to face the revenue loss of INR 4000 crore. Dhumal also talked about their losing money in every bilateral series postponement or cancellation.
He told Cricbuzz in a recent interview, “We’ll be able to assess it once we know when we’re going to start [the cricket]. As of now, every bilateral that we miss, we’ll be losing money. And if we’re not able to organise IPL then that’ll lead to a big hit. Not having an IPL would end up with a revenue loss of about INR 4000 crore.”
If individual cricket boards survive then, the only ICC survives: BCCI treasurer
Australia will host the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 from 18th October to 15th November 2020. While the coronavirus has recently postponed some international bilateral series, the International Cricket Council (ICC) is still hopeful to organise the upcoming T20 World Cup on time.
During the interview, the BCCI treasurer was asked whether they would consider playing bilateral series rather than participating in the recent ICC tournaments. In reply, Dhumal admitted this fact as he pointed out that the stability in the cricket boards should be the priority in this crisis.
He claimed, “Yes, easily that adds more money to any cricket board. That is why priority is everyone comes on board and finds out what is best. If individual cricket boards survive then only ICC survives, isn’t it? It’s not that ICC on its own can survive and feed all the cricket boards. If all of us are back to our feet, then only we’ll be able to help each other. I think that’ll be the endeavour of everyone associated with the game, that to revive world cricket it is very important that all the boards are in a healthy financial position.”
There were the reports that the BCCI could field two different Indian teams simultaneously in the two different series after the resumption of international cricket. Dhumal called it only as media speculation as they hadn’t talked about this yet.