From past two weeks, the future of IPL 2020 has been in a jeopardy, the co-owner of Rajasthan Royals (RR) is hopeful that the season won’t be scrapped after all. The tournament was earlier scheduled to to commence on March 29 but with the coronavirus pandemic wreaking havoc globally, it has been suspended till April 15 following which a decision may be taken.

Globally, all the sporting events have either been canceled or postponed including the Tokyo Olympics which will now be held in July 2021. RR co-owner Manoj Badale feels that IPL, though it will be postponed, it will take place even with the unavailability of overseas players.

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During a conversation with BBC 5 Liver, Badale said, “I think we will have some form of the tournament this year. It will probably be a shortened tournament. As long as people are prepared to be creative and as long as boards are prepared to work together collaboratively, it [IPL] is hugely important to the game of cricket. It is not just of importance to the Indians that the IPL takes place. If it was a choice of no IPL or a domestic player-only IPL I would choose the latter.”

The financial repercussions of canceling the event will be significant so the stakeholders, Badale said, need to find a way to make it happen.

The RR co-owner further added,  “It is [important] economically for some of the best players in the world. So the trickle-down effect of a tournament as big as the IPL not taking place in terms of its impact on more than just the players but (also) all the people whose livelihoods depend on it is pretty significant. aAss with the English Premier League, the atmosphere is a huge part of the spectacle, but, again, these are unprecedented times and sport needs to be put in the right perspective overall.”

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He further elaborated, “In India, the COVID phenomenon has only really just landed so when we have our owners’ conference calls, there’s still an expectation that there may be a way of the games being played in June. We have had a number of calls as owners with the BCCI to talk about what those plans might be, but it is clearly going to be postponed”