Like the other recent cricket matches, the IPL 2020 has also been postponed due to the novel COVID-19 or coronavirus outbreak. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has no clue about the fate of the IPL 2020 as they can only think about the IPL after the cricket comes into the restart condition.
The 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) or IPL 2020 was initially scheduled to begin on 29th March and run till 24th May 2020. But the coronavirus has forced to postpone the beginning of this tournament.
According to the media reports, the BCCI is looking for the new window to host the IPL 2020, especially targeting the September-October window, in the case of postponement of Asia Cup 2020 and ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020.
IPL 2020: There is nothing as of now
However, the BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal has clarified that all the talks about the possibilities of organising the IPL 2020 are only media speculation. He has claimed that they haven’t planned anything in the present crisis and they can only talk about this after the situation gets under control.
Dhumal told The Sydney Morning Herald, “We haven’t planned anything as of now. We can’t think of IPL getting back yet.
“Players coming in from other countries, whether they’ll be willing to come here and be quarantined for two weeks and play IPL is not known. How can we think of IPL? This is all media speculation. There is nothing as of now. Once things get clear, then only will we be able to go back to the drawing board and think about re-starting cricket.”
The IPL started in 2008 and the BCCI was successful to organise this tournament in the fixed window (March-May) of every year till 2019. While the IPL 2020 was also scheduled in the fixed window, coronavirus has forced to postpone it till indefinite period.
Meanwhile, Australia will host the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 from 18th October to 15th November 2020. While the International Cricket Council (ICC) is still hopeful to organise this tournament on time, Dhumal doesn’t feel much hopeful about this tournament in October-November timeline. He has pointed out the issue of preparation for the teams ahead of this tournament.