A curtailed IPL could be an option for the upcoming edition of Indian Premier League which was discussed at Saturday’s meeting between BCCI and the eight IPL franchise owners amid the COVID-19 pandemic even as Kings XI Punjab’s Ness Wadia said that he doesn’t know when it will begin. as per the decision, IPL will begin from April 15 instead of March 29.
“We cannot and no one, you know, is in a position today to say when it’s going to start. We will review the situation after two to three weeks. And hopefully by then the cases will reduce,” Ness Wadia told reporters.
“There were six to seven options discussed during the meeting between team owners and BCCI including a curtailed IPL,” the source told PTI.
In India, there have been two deaths already reported and over 80 positive COVID-19 cases have been reported as well.
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“The second option right now is that teams could be divided into two groups of four and then top four go into the play-offs. The third option is increase of double headers (played on weekdays),” the source informed.
Along with this, another option is to play behind closed doors as well where all the 60 games can be played in a shorter time frame too. COVID-19 has seen more than 5,000 deaths globally already.
Ness Wadia said: “BCCI, IPL and (official broadcaster) Star (Sports) are clear that we are not looking at financial loss. At the meeting everyone agreed that human beings come first and finance comes second. We are here to adhere to governments directives. I don’t see anything being decided before the end of the month. We have to wait and watch and hope situation improves.”
“No decision can be taken until there is clarity. Clarity will only be in two three weeks. As far as your next question is will foreign players come on? I don’t know. There is a ban till the April 15 and then we’ll see. So if IPL happens, great if it doesn’t happen, so be it,” Wadia further added.
On the other hand, Delhi Capitals owner Parth Jindal said that there will be another meeting which will take place later where it will be discussed on other things.
“As things progress and evolve, BCCI will call for another meeting to discuss all the options. Today’s meeting was to tell us that they are watching the situation, all of us are watching and we will take a call in due course,” said Jindal. “We didn’t discuss anything, we need to assess the situation and the health and safety of public is most important consideration.”
Sourav 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. We are monitoring the situation and it will be reassessed every week. As much as we want to host IPL, we are also concerned about the safety of the people.”
