Board of Control for Cricket in India president Sourav Ganguly has revealed a decision on this year’s edition of the Indian Premier League is relatively imminent.
The 13th edition of the IPL was scheduled to take place earlier this year. It was then postponed for a couple of weeks – and later deferred indefinitely.
Whether the tournament is played this year remains in the balance. It might fit into the window provided by the possible absence of the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year.
The Mumbai Indians are the reigning IPL champions, having won the tournament four times – and are still a favourite with those who are placing sports bets online. They are priced at 5.00 for a fifth title, but will face stiff competition from the Sunrisers Hyderabad at 5.50. Hyderabad have only one IPL title to their name, but threatened for a second in the 2018 and 2019 finals.
What Ganguly said
“Cricketing activities have come to a complete standstill and it seems that it will take a couple of months to resume training and competitive cricket in India,” Ganguly said in a statement this month.
“The IPL 2020 was scheduled to start from 29 March 2020, however it has been indefinitely postponed.
“The fans, franchises, players, broadcasters, sponsors and all other stakeholders are keenly looking forward to the possibility of IPL being hosted this year.”
Global attraction
Stars from all over the world compete in the Indian Premier League. The Sunrisers, for instance, are captained by Australian David Warner. The Chennai Super Kings have South Africans Imran Tahir, Faf du Plessis and Lungi Ngidi. There are several other examples of players from abroad adopting IPL franchises for the duration of the tournament.
Countries from which the IPL draws participation
- New Zealand
- England
- South Africa
- Australia
- Sri Lanka
- West Indies
- Bangladesh
- Afghanistan
“Recently a lot of players, both from India and other countries, participating in IPL have also shown their keenness on being a part of this year IPL. We are optimistic and the BCCI will shortly decide on the future course of action on this,” added Ganguly.
Football’s example
The BCCI will likely draw example from the German Bundesliga, La Liga in Spain and English Premier League, which have returned to competitive action behind closed doors.
“The BCCI is working on all possible options to ensure that we are able to stage the IPL this year, even if it means playing the tournament in empty stadiums,” concluded Ganguly.
Favoured franchises
The Royal Challengers Bangalore have played in all 12 editions of the Indian Premier League, but are still in the hunt for a maiden title. They have a power-packed batting unit with global superstars such as AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli – and are priced at 8.00 to win the 13th IPL.
The Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab, like Bangalore, are offered at long odds for the title at 9.50 and 10.00, respectively.
Knight Riders’ take
The Kolkata Knight Riders, meanwhile, have two titles to boast about and are offered at 7.50 for a third. Knight Riders chief executive officer Venky Mysore is confident the franchise can succeed – on and off the field – in the unusual circumstances.
“We’re definitely going to have some challenges,” Mysore told ESPNcricinfo recently.
“If we’re lucky enough that things will settle down or the tournament will take place later this year, it’s clearly going to be in what they’ll call as a stadium lockdown mode.
“The challenge to us is how do you activate the sponsors? Are there ways in which you can compensate for this?”
