The BCCI seems to be finding alternatives to conduct the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 season if it cannot be conducted in the summer between April and May. With the coronavirus pandemic creating panic across the globe, the BCCI postponed the league till at least April 15 as a precaution. By the looks of it, the IPL may not start even then in which case the season will have to be cancelled.
But the BCCI seems to have found a workaround. The initial media reports suggested that a shortened IPL in a reduced timeframe is BCCI’s ‘Plan B’. However, the Times of India reported that BCCI wants to host the entire tournament consisting of 60 matches and have come up with a window to do so.
“The 2009 IPL – in South Africa – was played inside 37 days. That’s five weeks and two days. If that kind of a window is made available, the IPL can be held partly in India and partly overseas, or the entire tournament can be shifted, depending on how the Covid-19 situation is globally,” a source told the Times of India.
The report states that BCCI could be hosting the IPL in the July-September window if the league cannot be started on April 15 as planned now. The hurdle here is that it clashes with ICC’s Future Tours Programme (FTP) for the year 2020. But a look at the calendar shows that the FTP isn’t too packed between the months of July and September this year. The major events are the Asia Cup T20 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in September and England hosting Pakistan at home before playing Ireland in the white-ball format.
So, with the exemption of England as Pakistan do not participate in the IPL anyway, the other cricket nations are free in this time period. The IPL can be completed before the Asia Cup in September if it starts shortly after India’s tour of Sri Lanka – consisting of 3 ODIs and 3 T20s – in June / July. They might also try to tweak that schedule if need be.