BCCI and IPL franchises are discussing new wats to host the upcoming season of IPL as the outbreak of the Coronavirus postponed the league.
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The outbreak of the Coronavirus has massively affected the sporting scene throughout the world, and even the world’s most popular T20 cricket league- The IPL has been no exception to it.
The widespread of COVD-19 has postponed the start of the league to April 15, making major makeshifts in the cricket calendar. Hence, a meeting between BCCI and all 8 IPL franchises’ owners to discuss how the league will take place safely amid novel coronavirus threat.
The state governments of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Delhi have refused to allow any to host any IPL matches anytime soon. Also, foreign players and coaches are not getting the visa approved. After the meeting between the board and owners.
BCCI source told the discussion they had, one of the first options presented in the meeting was the curtailment of the IPL for this season. he second option is of dividing 8 teams into two groups of four. The team finishing at top two at both groups will play the play-offs.
The third option is to increase in the double-headers matches. This year only 6 doubleheaders were scheduled which was making it a 50-day long tournament.
The fourth option is holding all matches in just a couple of centres with restricted movements of players, support staff and TV crew, to prevent the spread of the virus.
Another option is to play behind closed doors (empty stadiums) and has all the 60 games in a shorter time frame which will ensure that the stakeholders do not lose out truckloads of money.
After the meeting, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly told that the number of matches will be reduced if IPL takes place this year since the window of the tournament will be massively reduced after postponement.
Also read: IPL 2020 Cutoff Date Set To Be 20th April 2020, According To Reports
Ganguly said, “It will happen, because if it is April 15, then, in any case, 15 days are gone, it has to be truncated. How truncated, how many games, I can’t say at the moment.”
