With the outbreak of the recent pandemic, Covid-19 novel coronavirus, the Board of control for cricket in India is exploring all the available alternatives to organise the 13th season of the Indian Premier League. However, with the recent situation getting worse with everyday, it is reported that the Indian board might ponder to host the IPL in the July-September window with a new schedule for the tournament.
The tournament was originally scheduled to be hosted from March 29 but it was pushed to April 15 due to the present situation of the virus. Meanwhile, it is known that it is not going to be a hectic cricket calendar in July-September and the IPL can be fixed into the same.
There is Asia Cup to be played in September in the United Arab Emirates whereas England will host Pakistan before the Three Lions will take on Ireland in the limited-overs format. Furthermore, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is planning to host The Hundred from this English summer.
Apart from the Asia cup, India is scheduled to lock horns with Sri Lanka in three ODIs and as many T20I matches before the T20 World Cup in Australia. Consequently, apart from players of England, the other cricketing countries like Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, South Africa, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh don’t have a packed schedule in that time window.
An official close to the matters revealed that the whole IPL can be shifted outside India if it has a window of just over a month. The second edition of the tournament was held in South Africa due to elections in the country and that season was wrapped up in only 37 days.
“The 2009 IPL – in South Africa – was played inside 37 days. That’s five weeks and two days. If that kind of a window is made available, the IPL can be held partly in India and partly overseas, or the entire tournament can be shifted, depending on how the Covid-19 situation is globally,” a official said as quoted by Times of India.
It is a very tricky situation in which the BCCI and the owners of all the eight franchises find themselves in. The future of the league will depend on how things pan out in the coming days but presently there is hardly any light at the end of the tunnel if the situation doesn’t improve.
Written by: Gautam Chauhan
