The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are mulling over starting the upcoming 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 from March 28 and that has given all the franchises sleepless nights as the tournament was previously scheduled to start around April 1.
Following the latest reports, all the franchises are losing sleep over the dates, as the two high-profile international series would be clashing at that time – the 3-match T20I series between Australia and New Zealand and the two Test matches between England and Sri Lanka.
However, the official calendar for the IPL 2020 is yet to be out and the teams are hoping that the IPL Governing Council will go back to the old format of having double headers in the upcoming tournament and the upcoming season will get underway around April 1.
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Speaking to IANS, a senior official of one of the franchises said: “See, while the Australia-New Zealand series ends with the final T20I being played on March 29, the second Test of the series between England and Sri Lanka technically ends only on March 31.”
The official continued, “In such a scenario, you start the season minus your big players and that isn't a happy occasion. If we do start from April 1, the scenario looks so much better. Hopefully, the IPL GC will see what we are speaking about makes for a consideration.”
Meanwhile an official of another franchise said: “See, it is a scenario which the franchises realised isn't very favourable and the matter was in fact debated by around 4 to 5 of the teams present as nobody wants to start on the back foot. But then, we can only hope. You might see an appeal from some of us as we still have around a couple of weeks to go before the calendar is released.”
On the other hand, an official of one of the franchises has also expressed his concern that they might have to start the upcoming 13th season without their overseas players.
The official said, “Last year, our guys went away in the business end and this time we might have to start the season without our top four overseas players. This is something that the IPL GC should be kind enough to look into as we would love to start on the front foot and set the momentum early into the season.”
Noteworthy, the IPL governing council will take the final call on whether they will go ahead with the March 28-May 24 window or old format in the upcoming 13th edition of the tournament.
(With IANS Inputs)
