Sports events all across the globe are either been canceled or been postponed thanks to the rising threat of the pandemic that is the novel coronavirus. On the cricketing front, almost every series including the ODI series between Australia-New Zealand and India-South Africa, England’s Test tour of Sri Lanka, Australia Women tour of South Africa has been postponed.
Cricket’s showpiece event the Indian Premier League (IPL) has also been suffered a blow by the escalating situation. The tournament was earlier scheduled to commence on March 29th and now it has been postponed till April 15th. Amidst growing rumors of the cancellation of the tournament, the Board of Control for Cricket in India [BCCI] announced on Friday, that the 13th edition has been postponed till April 15th.
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The IPL governing council held a meeting with the franchise owners on Saturday when they discussed the issue, and Shahrukh Khan, the co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders took to Twitter to express his concerns regarding the issue. He tweeted: “Wonderful to meet all the Franchise owners ‘off the field’ so to say. The meeting by @Bcci and @ipl was to reiterate what all of us feel…safety first of the spectators, players management & cities we play in. All directives of the health agencies & govt to be followed..”
2/2. Hope the spread of the virus subsides & the show can go on. BCCI & team owners in consultation with the govt will keep a close watch & decide the way fwd in the health interest of ever1. Lovely 2 meet every1 & then sanitise ourselves repeatedly..@SGanguly99 @JayShah #BPatel
— Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) March 14, 2020
Shahrukh also hoped for the virus to eventually subside and pave way for the IPL to take center stage.
The veteran actor further tweeted: “Hope the spread of the virus subsides & the show can go on. BCCI & team owners in consultation with the govt will keep a close watch & decide the way fwd in the health interest of ever1. Lovely 2 meetsanitize& then sanitize ourselves repeatedly..@SGanguly99 @JayShah #BPatel”.
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Meanwhile, it is still not clarified whether the IPL will go ahead as planned or not. The Union Ministry of External Affairs has requested the BCCI to consider canceling the upcoming edition altogether, something which has also been echoed by KXIP co-owner Ness Wadia.
