Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is willing to conduct IPL which is currently called off in India due to ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic but the influential people of BCCI feel that it’s not the right time to discuss such a proposal when the “world is initially closed.”
Earlier Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) expressed its desire to host the IPL 2020 which has been currently suspended in India to control COVID-19 but the top officials and influential people of the BCCI feel that there is no point in discussing such a proposal in a situation when the ‘world is closed’ and battling the deadly COVID-19 Pandemic right now. The IPL 2020 which was scheduled to be held from March 29 jas been postponed indefinitely by the BCCI as the nation went under 2nd phase of lockdown till 3 May due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and the BCCI reportedly said that it will conduct the cash-rich IPL league only when the situation gets back to normalcy.
“The BCCI will not be in a position to discuss anything about hosting IPL in Sri Lanka when the world is closed and battling COVID-19 Pandemic by staying indoors”, a senior BCCI official said media. Sri Lanka just has 200 cases currently as compared to India’s whopping 13,000 cases. While the death number has crossed the 400 mark in India.
A BCCI official confirmed that currently there is no proposal of SLC to host IPL in Sri-Lanka and there is no guarantee about when we can hold a meaningful discussion on this subject even if we get the SLC proposal. Currently, major International flights have been suspended after several countries have imposed lockdowns to combat the deadly virus.
“There is currently no proposal from SLC yet and obviously no discussion is held about it”, the official said when asked about the BCCIs stand when they will get the offer on the table. The SLC can have the matches on three grounds i.e Galle, Kandy and Premadasa Stadium with crowd reduced to less than half as there are no inland flights.
Having an IPL will help SLC to gain significant financial stability more than what a T20 series against India can guarantee to SLC in July. Talking about the BCCI view then it will be keener to conduct IPL in India either in the month of September-October or October-November.
