Mumbai: Following the situation in the country due to the outbreak of Coronavirus Pandemic many sports events have been affected. India’s biggest cricket festival Indian Premier League is still on hold and it is yet to decide that the league will take place or not.
India has witnessed over 6 lakh positive cases so far and the count is increasing with each passing day.
The IPL was supposed to be held from 29 March but it was postponed due to the COVID19 outbreak.
Meanwhile, BCCI looks forward to staging the tournament in the latter part of the year. But if the COVID-19 scenario does not shrink across the country, the board will have no choice but to move the tournament to a different country.
A BCCI official revealed the developments that a coronavirus pandemic could force BCCI to relocate the cash-rich league to the UAE or Sri Lanka. No final announcement has been made yet as the BCCI awaits an official decision on the fate of the T20 World Cup in Australia. The BCCI is planning to host the IPL in the T20 World Cup window.
He said, ‘We are yet to decide on the venue, but in all likelihood, it is going out this year. The situation in India is not so favorable that many teams come to one or two places and then create an environment that is safe for the players as well as the general public, even though the games can be played behind closed doors.
“The race is between the United Arab Emirates and Sri Lanka and we need to decide whether we will host the league based on the situation there in relation to the coronavirus pandemic. Logistics also needs to be looked into, so we will decide soon,” he said.
The tournament was initially planned to be hosted in the country. However, a constant rise in the positive cases has compelled the BCCI to start looking out for other countries as venues.
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