Indian government on March 24 imposed a nationwide 21-day lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, which effectively means that the 13th edition of IPL won’t begin from April 15.

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IPL 2020 was rescheduled from March 29 to mid-April in the wake of Coronavirus outbreak last month as the BCCI was hoping that the situation would improve.

But with the COVID-19 cases continuing to rise globally, it is unlikely the cash-rich event will be organised anytime soon.

Amid the crisis, England batsman Jos Buttler has said it is a “big shame” that IPL 13 cannot be held at the moment but he is expecting the T20 league to be slotted later in the year.

“I don’t know any more than you know about when IPL would be played or people talking about whether it can be pushed back. At the moment, everything is quite indefinite as no one knows how long it will last. So it can’t be decided at the moment when it could or could not happen,” he was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

Buttler, who is a key player in Rajasthan Royals’ squad, also underlined the importance of a tournament like IPL.

“As for the stature of the tournament, it’s a massive, massive tournament. Revenue that is involved in IPL is massive. It is a very important competition to cricket and it’s a big shame that it’s not going ahead or whether it does have the way to push it in the schedule and allow it,” he added.

In case, the IPL gets slotted later in the year, some of the top players could miss the marquee event owing to national commitments.

”Of course, that might mean certain players might be unavailable. They will have to work through as the situation unfolds,” Buttler concluded.