After the Board of Control for Cricket in India decided to push back the starting date of IPL owing to coronavirus outbreak in all over the country, former Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Rajeev Shukla thanked BCCI and all the franchises for this.

“I would like to thank all the franchises and the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, secretary Jay Shah, and chairman Brijesh Patel for coming on the same page for the deferment of the IPL dates. For all of us public interest is supreme over financial interest which is a good thing,” Shukla told ANI.

“The BCCI along with all the IPL franchises have reiterated BCCI’s stand of putting safety and well-being of fans, athletes, and employees as a priority,” the BCCI said in a statement.

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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. 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.