Coronavirus has forced BCCI to postpone the most popular league — Indian Premier League (IPL) until April 15. Earlier, the IPL 2020 was scheduled to start from 29th March with the curtain-raiser taking place between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
Now, the BCCI has given more clarity over the expected start dates of IPL.
On Saturday (14th March), BCCI held a meeting with the owners of the franchise to discuss the future of the 13th edition of the IPL.
The IPL Chairman Brijesh Patel informed that the discussion had put out five potential dates, them being April 15, April 21, April 25, May 1 and May 5.
IPL 2020: Home and away concept might be avoided:
The cash-rich league is a two-month-long tournament as it follows a unique pattern. The league follows home and away pattern where the franchise plays a couple of games in their home ground whereas some games in another franchise’s home ground.
This particular concept might be avoided to reduce the period of the game.
Also, more double headers might be included. Speaking about the same a franchise official who took part in the meeting said,
“In the past, when IPL was moved to South Africa in 2009, it was conducted over a span of 37 days. So if we begin by April 25 and run it till Mayend, we can pull it off. But if it’s beyond that, it’s hard to plan how it will happen. One option is, avoiding the home-away concept and playing each other only once.”
Coronavirus: BCCI could face massive loss if IPL 2020 stands cancelled –
“Other is to have two groups. But the option of splitting it into two groups hasn’t found any takers as some marquee clashes will go missing from the calendar,” a franchise official informed The New Indian Express.
According to reports, BCCI will have to face INR 10,000 crore loss if IPL gets cancelled due to the coronavirus-19.
Besides, franchises have expressed that they will face difficulty to play the game without foreign players.