IPL may happen after September 2020: BCCI CEO

While the ICC and BCCI have been deliberating over the fate of the T20 World Cup that has been scheduled to take place from October 18 to November 15 in Australia and the IPL 2020 that was rescheduled to begin on April 15 respectively, BCCI CEO Rahul Johri has reportedly mentioned that a full-fledged IPL 2020 with all the international cricketers might happen later this year post the monsoon season, if the World Cup were to be postponed.

The 13th edition of the Indian Premier League, which was scheduled to begin on March 29, was initially postponed to mid-April following the global concern over the coronavirus pandemic. The BCCI then announced the official suspension of the  tournament until further notice. “IPL is one of the greatest engagers. More people watched the IPL last year than those who voted for general elections. For sponsors, cricket is a leader and it will lead the way. The recovery will be sharper than a V-shaped recovery. The flavour of IPL is that best players of the world come and play, and everyone is committed to maintaining that flow. But it will be a step-by-step process. We can’t expect normalisation tomorrow,” Rahul Johri said at the TCM Sports Huddle webinar.

Stating that the BCCI was waiting for a final word from the Indian government regarding the lockdown situation, Johri further added, “We will be guided by the government guidelines. Our advisory says: IPL is suspended till further notice. We are engaging with various agencies. After the current phase of lockdown ends, there is the monsoon. Cricketing activities can start only after monsoon. By then, hopefully things will improve. When flights resume, everyone has to quarantine themselves before playing. We will have to look at how that will impact the schedules, which as it is are tight. Imagine you have to factor in 14-day quarantine prior to practice also. So, there are a lot of moving parts. But we are still optimistic. Hopefully, the situation will improve after monsoon, and we will approach it then.”

Regarding the organization of the matches without spectators, the BCCI CEO mentioned, “It will not just be in IPL but also international cricket. Although it (gate receipts) gives us small percentage of our revenue, it is important because bulk of that goes in maintenance of stadiums. However, in the short term, before we get back to normal, we can live without it (spectators).”