BCCI announced that the start of the IPL 2020 has been postponed from March 29 to April 15, keeping in mind the global concern over the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) outbreak.
The BCCI top brass including president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah and top management of the IPL took this decision after the Indian government’s health and public welfare ministry issued a health and safety warning against a mass gathering of public, even in stadiums.
IPL 2020: Tournament to be postponed by a couple of weeks; games to be held behind closed doors
Also, the government has decided that all existing visas, except diplomatic, official, UN/international organizations, employment and project visas, stand suspended till April 15. This meant that, as per reports, all the foreign players contracted to various franchises would have been unavailable to visit the country before April 15, making it impossible for the franchises, who depend on their popularity.
There had been reports of IPL 2020 being a severely restricted tournament this season due to coronavirus outbreak. Ticket sales for the tournament opener in Mumbai between MI and CSK on March 29 were already canceled by Maharashtra government, while Karnataka state had called for the cancellation of the event altogether.
However, BCCI, the IPL GC and the franchises involved want the whole tournament to be played, even without the spectators in the ground, in front of empty stadiums. The stakes are huge. The 60-game league is said to generate more than $11 billion a year to the Indian economy and Chinese mobile-maker Vivo paid $330 million to be the top sponsor for 2018-2022.
On Wednesday the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) a pandemic and the Indian government had issued an updated advisory. “It is for the organizers to decide whether to go ahead with it or not. And then we will be open to the idea if they really want to do it. Our advice would be not to do it at this time, but if they still want to go ahead it is their decision,” the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Dammu Ravi had said.
(ESPNCricinfo inputs)
