Amid the rise of coronavirus pandemic across the globe, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had to postpone the forthcoming Indian Premier League (IPL), which was scheduled to commence from March 29. Although, the apex body has deferred the league until April 15, but there is no confirmation over whether the IPL would start soon after that.
The IPL governing council held a meeting with the eight franchises on Saturday (March 14) and reportedly came up with five dates on which the league can start. According to the New Indian Express, the five dates are April 15, April 21, April 25, May 1 and May 5.
The aforementioned dates are five dates on which IPL 2020 could begin. The report further claimed that the franchises are confident of hosting the tournament in full if it begins anywhere before April 25. Notably, the entire tournament was pulled off in 37 days when IPL moved to South Africa in 2009.
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“In the past, when IPL was moved to South Africa in 2009, it was conducted over a span of 37 days. So if we begin by April 25 and run it till May-end, we can pull it off. But if it’s beyond that, it’s hard to plan how it will happen.
“One option is, avoiding the home-away concept and playing each other only once. Other is to have two groups. But the option of splitting it into two groups hasn’t found any takers as some marquee clashes will go missing from the calendar,” a franchise official told the news outlet.
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Meanwhile, on the contrary, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has expressed the tournament would be curtailed whenever it commences. However, he didn’t divulge any detailed information on the truncated tournament.
“It will happen, because if it is April 15, then, in any case, 15 days are gone, it has to be truncated. How truncated, how many games, I can’t say at the moment,” Sourav Ganguly told reporters.
