The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decide to postpone the IPL 2020, which was to start form March 29, to April 15 with a cut off date of April 20, keeping in line with the government of India advisory of avoiding mass gatherings of people in one place due to spread of deadly COVID-19 aka Coronavirus.
The government also suspended all visas till April 15, which meant that no foreign players could play in the ongoing IPL till the said date. Hence the franchises clamored for the tournament to be held a bit later, as they were okay with playing in empty stadiums rather than playing without their foreign players for 15 days.
The decision of postponing the IPL 13 has been met with all-round applause from all franchise owners. The Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) co-owner Ness Wadia mentioned that no tournament was bigger than a person’s life.
Now, co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders and Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan, who has won the IPL title in 2012 and 2014, mentioned that the decision was correct as it was safety first of spectators, players management & cities we play in.
His statements on Twitter came after the franchise owners had met with the IPL governing council and BCCI top brass to discuss the future of this season of IPL.
He tweeted,” Wonderful to meet all the Franchise owners ‘off the field’ so to say. The meeting by @Bcci and @ipl was to reiterate what all of us feel...safety first of the spectators, players management & cities we play in. All directives of the health agencies & govt to be followed.”
Shah Rukh also prayed that the virus subsides in the coming few weeks and the tournament can be played on its whole. But the BCCI and the team owners are in touch with the government and will be consulting with them before taking the next step.
“Hope the spread of the virus subsides & the show can go on. BCCI & team owners in consultation with the govt will keep a close watch & decide the way fwd in the health interest of ever1. Lovely 2 meet every1 & then sanitize ourselves repeatedly..@SGanguly99 @JayShah #BPatel,” he further tweeted.
The coronavirus threat has already brought cricket all over the world to a standstill with India-South Africa ODI series, Australia-New Zealand ODI series, Australia women’s tour to South Africa and other similar event have been postponed or canceled altogether as the entire world struggles to cope with coronavirus’ impact.
