In a very short time, the COVID-19 or Coronavirus has hugely affected the global market. While it has hugely affected in global sports too, the cricket world is also disturbed by the rage of Coronavirus. Though the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is confident enough about the IPL 2020, the future of the upcoming season of this cash-rich league is still under the cloud. The IPL governing council will meet soon to discuss the future of the IPL 2020.
The full schedule of the IPL 2020 has already come out. The 13th edition of the IPL will run from 29th March to 24th May 2020. The double round-robin stage will run till 17th May 2020.
A total of eight teams will participate in this tournament. Every team are in the final mood to set up the team, including the supporting staff, for the upcoming season.
But the Coronavirus outbreak has put the IPL 2020 future under the cloud. While more than 1,20,000 people have been already affected in this virus, 4,000+ people have lost their lives.
In India, the Coronavirus-affected patients are rising up slowly as it has already crossed 50.
Earlier, the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly confirmed that the IPL 2020 would run according to the plan. But recently, the state governments have taken this issue seriously as some of the state governments have even appealed to postpone or cancel the IPL 2020.
Maharashtra government has recently talked about the possibility of organising the entire IPL 2020 matches behind the close doors. The government has also stopped ticket sales for the opening game of the IPL 2020.
IPL 2020: Mumbai will host the opening and final matches apart from the other round-robin stage games
Wankhede Stadium (Mumbai) will host the opening match of the IPL 2020 between the defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) and the last year’s runners-up Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on 29th March. This venue will also host the other home matches of the defending champions as well as the IPL 2020 final on 24th May.
According to media reports, the IPL governing council will meet at BCCI headquarters on this Saturday (14th March) to discuss the future of the IPL 2020. The BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah are also likely to be present in this meeting.
An IPL governing council member recently told The Telegraph, “We will meet in the next 2/3 days and discuss the scenario. There has been no official communication so far but the situation has reached a stage where we cannot remain oblivious to what is happening around us. More importantly, the situation is changing dramatically every day as the number of persons affected seem to be on the rise.”
On Wednesday (11th March), the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has postponed the Mujib 100 T20 Cup Bangladesh 2020 where Asia XI and World XI would meet in the two-match T20I series on 21st and 22nd March at Dhaka. As the BCB can’t guarantee on the availabilities of the foreign international players, they have decided to postpone these special T20I matches.