IPL : “There will be No Cricket in India in Near Future” Says Sourav Ganguly

The Indian Premier League (IPL) was postponed for an indefinite time by the BCCI after the central government extended the 21 days lockdown in the country till May 3.?

The outbreak of coronavirus in the world has affected the sports industry badly. All the ongoing or upcoming tournaments are unlikely to happen in the near future. The game of cricket is also undergoing a bad phase as the fate of all the major tournaments like IPL 2020 and T20 World Cup 2020 is uncertain.?

The 13th edition of the Indian Premier League was scheduled to begin from March 29. However, the BCCI decided to suspend the tournament till April 15 after the government denied issuing visas to the foreign players. But as there is a lockdown in the country, the chances of hosting the league this year looks grim.?

The Board of Control for Cricket in India will face huge losses if the tournament gets canceled. Also, the players will not get even a single penny from their respective teams as the IPL franchises run on a simple formula – No match, No money.?

Sourav Ganguly talks about IPL

Former Indian captain and the president of BCCI Sourav Ganguly finally opened up on the future of the IPL 2020. There are proposals regarding the IPL like conducting the tournament behind closed doors or shifting it to the September-October slot. However, this would require the permission of both ICC and Cricket Australia as Australia has to host the T20 World Cup later this year.?

Amidst the speculations, Sourav Ganguly ruled out the possibility of organizing cricket matches in the near future. He said that human life is more important than any game of sports.?

Ganguly told TOI, “There will be no cricket in India in the near future. There are too many ifs and buts involved. More importantly, I don’t believe in the sport when there is a risk to human life.”

The veteran bowler Harbhajan Singh also backed the former captain stating that it would be impossible to control the crowd.

Harbhajan questioned, “When IPL teams travel, there’s a huge crowd at the airports, hotels, outside the stadium. How are you going to stop them if you are looking to maintain social distancing? There should be no top-flight cricket until there is a vaccine for COVID-19.”?