Indian Premier League:
The International Cricket Council’s (ICC) indecision has left India’s powerful Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) frustrated on its failure to finalise the remaining calendar for Cricket in 2020 which can provide the Indian Premier League a slot to be able to be played.
Exit T20 World Cup, enter IPL 2020? https://t.co/eXKJkNNxfD pic.twitter.com/2EwlTJDs0C
— Vijay Bhaskar (@ghostlyrants) July 20, 2020
The current global pandemic has caused major upheaval in all sports, but in particular world cricket has been hit hard. Given the nature of foreign travel, it has been hugely problematic for International Cricket Council to reschedule lost events that were meant to be played from March to June in 2020, and also to start giving the green light for planned events to go ahead.
The first major event to be postponed was the Indian Premier League (IPL) which was meant to start at the end of March and run until May. Since them the BCCI have been in constant contact and had regular meetings with ICC in looking to re-schedule the tournament for later this year.
Due to the continued global pandemic all parties are hugely aware this event could not be staged until the autumn at the earliest as safety measures could not be met. With other sports restarting and even cricket returning in the form of the test match series between England and West Indies, there is hope that other Cricket can be played very soon.
The ICC has its yearly calendar mapped out and the priority is to deal with the major tournaments to find a way for them to happen. The IPL and the World T20 are the two most important events which need finalising and there has been lots of indecision by ICC on whether the World T20 is going to go ahead this year.
Hosts of World T20 tournament Australia were one of the first countries to have the COVID19 virus under control however in recent weeks it transpires that there have now been outbreaks in certain parts of the country meaning the ICC are yet to conform whether this will go ahead.
With 16 teams set to compete in the flagship event, the safety has to be confirmed for everyone participating in the event and even taking extreme measures to ensure this happens, the ICC and tournament Organisers from Australia may look to postpone the event until 2021.
BCCI frustrated as they look to give IPL the go-ahead
It’s a very delicate situation going on with regards to whether the World T20 tournament goes ahead in Australia later this year and the ICC has to make a decision very soon on whether this event gets postponed until 2021.
The impact on ICC’s decision will have a huge one on whether the IPL is able to be played as the BCCI have looked at a late September start date for the tournament, providing the World T20 doesn’t go ahead.
Both tournaments take the form of 20 over cricket and therefore players wouldn’t be able to play in both events so it’s key that the final decision is make quickly so official confirmation can be given for either IPL for World T20 to go ahead or therefore safety measures undertaken.
At present, there seems a no-win situation for the ICC as the aim to ensure the maximum amount of Cricket can get played according to the event schedules that were confirmed in 2020. Moreover, the aim is to ensure that from 2021 that all the planned tournaments are able to be delivered.
Many tours have already been cancelled which were meant to take place from early 2020 and with nature of world cricket, these will now not be able to be played.
For BCCI, they now aim for a conclusion to whether the IPL can be played in 2020 and are hopeful that a decision will be made by the end of July and the green light be given for a start in late September which will run until November. For BCCI and also IPL organisers, they are likely to have to play the tournament outside of India, but just to get the tournament ahead now is the main priority.
The IPL is such a valuable event in terms of revenues generates, all protocols will be maximised to ensure the safety of all players and staff of each of the teams and especially the foreign players who will play in the tournament.
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