Unfortunately, there was no progress made on the 13th edition of the IPL during the teleconference on Monday (March 16) by all eight franchises, with no change in the situation regarding the COVID-19 outbreak in the past 48 hours.
All stakeholders, including the BCCI which has already announced the suspension of the tournament to at least April 15, are keeping a tab on the growing number of cases in the country and how that might directly affect the entire event this season.
BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has already confirmed it'll be a "truncated IPL" with as many as 17 days confirmed to be lost of the league-stage after the Indian government put on hold all visas to the country till mid-April.
"Nothing concrete was discussed in today’s meeting (con-call). It was just a follow up meeting. The situation has not changed in 48 hours, so talking about hosting the IPL is still pre-mature," an IPL franchise owner told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
"We have to wait and watch. We will keep doing these con calls on a weekly basis to take stock of the situation," the owner added.
Reportedly, there are various options on table on how to go about conducting the tournament if the situation improves.
One of those is dividing teams into two groups of four and then contesting the knock-outs between the top two qualifiers from each group.
The other, of course, is to have multiple double-header days, which will require a shorter span of time, and play those games at a limited number of venues.
More clarity is expected on the matter in coming days.
(Inputs from PTI)
