IPL 2020 has been stalled due to the coronavirus scare. Though the tournament was planned to take place in closed stadiums, the foreign players could not reach out to the country after all the international flights got canceled. When it is almost impossible for the IPL to happen this year, the postponement of T20 Cricket World Cup brought new hopes on IPL 2020. The T20 World Cup was planned to commence in Australia this year. As per the ongoing speculations, the T20 World Cup that was planned in Australia this year is pushed to 2022. ICC staged a high profile meeting through a video conference that will take place tomorrow and the final call on T20 World Cup will be made.

If the T20 World Cup gets pushed, IPL 2020 may happen in October or November. An official announcement about the IPL 2020 schedule will be planned and announced in July. This would be a great news for cricket lovers who are waiting to watch the sport live. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly is expected to support the move in his tomorrow’s meeting. India will also host the T20 World Cup 2021 and hence the T20 World Cup of the current year is scheduled to 2022. BCCI will closely monitor the situations of coronavirus for the next two months after which the final call on IPL 2020 will be taken.

In what could be a huge blow to organising the 13th edition of Indian Premier League (IPL), a second meeting of the Group of Ministers on Wednesday cancelled all visas, except for a few official categories, till April 15 in the wake of the growing coronavirus scare.

In the meeting held at Nirman Bhavan here, it was decided that all existing visas, except diplomatic, official, UN/international organisations, employment and project visas, stand suspended till April 15 as the coronavirus outbreak has already seen over 60 positive cases in India.

The coronavirus outbreak was on Wednesday declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), whose chief expressed his “deep concern” over the “alarming levels of inaction” in combating the virus spread.

But the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is still keeping their fingers crossed and have said that they will keep working closely with the concerned departments to ensure that all possible precautions are taken.

“The present scenario is a huge challenge for the BCCI-IPL and it is one where the circumstances are changing every few hours, and the BCCI has no control over these circumstances. As is usually the case in such situations, the BCCI would be in regular touch with the concerned departments to take the best possible course of action in the interest of the game, the players, the fans and the league,” a BCCI official told IANS.

The advisory from the Government of India does speak of exception for official visas and IPL franchises believe that could help as the ban would be for tourists looking to visit the country.

“See, there is an exception being made for those coming to India for official reasons. So we are still hoping that there shouldn’t be a problem in having our foreign recruits over for the tournament. Rest obviously depends on what the government feels is best, as public health is of utmost importance,” the official of an IPL franchise told IANS.

In fact, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly had recently made it clear that there was no reason to worry about the fate of the tournament as the board was taking all necessary precautions.

Ministers in Maharashtra and Karnataka have already written to the Centre to put the cash-rich league on hold and the new advisory from the government could see a new twist as far as the fate of the IPL is concerned.

The move to add new teams to the Indian Premier League family might have to wait till the 2021 season, but there is likely to be new venues in place for the 2020 edition of the cash-rich league. The eight franchise owners met the new BCCI office-bearers in Mumbai on Tuesday and the three cities that are in fray are Lucknow, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram.

Speaking to IANS, a BCCI official said that while Kings XI Punjab are keen to make Lucknow their second home, Rajasthan Royals wants to shift from Ahmedabad to Guwahati. While the home team of Thiruvananthapuram is yet to be decided, it is being said that it could move in as the third new venue thanks to the facilities on offer and the cricket crazy fans in the city.

“Rajasthan have requested for a change of their second home from Ahmedabad to Guwahati and while the GC is okay with the move, IMG will now conduct inspection at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium before giving the green signal.

“As for Lucknow, KXIP have been looking to move to the city since the last edition and had even sent in a request. But polls had played a major role in causing a delay in the shift. But thanks to the great review of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium after the India-West Indies game, the venue is now almost certain to become Punjab’s second home. They earlier played their games at the I.S. Bindra Stadium in Mohali and also used the Holkar Stadium in Indore as their second home,” the official said.

“Too early to comment on Thiruvananthapuram, but again, the reviews of the Greenfield International Stadium is brilliant and the people of Kerala are crazy about the game.”

Coming back to Rajasthan’s decision to request for a change of venue, the official said that as per RR the demand for share in profits was one of the reasons cited for the move. “RR believe that the share in profit being asked for is on the higher side. Also, Guwahati is keen to come onboard and be a part of the IPL carnival,” the official pointed.

It has been also learnt that apart from Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Capitals, even Rajasthan is interested to ensure that the idea of IPL teams playing international friendlies sees the light of the day.

Kings XI Punjab co-owner Ness Wadia being sentenced for drugs possession while on a skiing holiday to Japan could mean trouble for the Indian Premier League team. As per the Operational Rules of the cash-rich league, no team official involved with the league can act in a manner which brings disrepute to the team, the league, the BCCI or the game on or off the field. If guilty, the persons action can even lead to suspension of the team.

While the matter is required to be first sent to the commission for investigation, the commission will then forward its finding to the ombudsman.

Citing the manner in which Chennai Super Kings (CSK) had to bear the brunt for the acts of the team principal, a senior BCCI functionary said that KXIP could be in deep trouble.

“The KXIP are unfortunately looking at suspension as a best case scenario and termination as a worst case scenario due to the conviction of an owner in a criminal case of drug possession.

“No less than the Lodha panel had suspended the CSK for two years because their team official was accused of betting. In this case we have an owner convicted of drug possession by a criminal court. If he was a state cricket official he would have stood disqualified from holding office automatically.

“This also exposes the discriminatory provisions of the new BCCI constitution which is draconian for a state association but doesn’t put any restriction on a franchise official even though IPL performances clearly matter more for selection to the Indian team than Ranji performances,” the functionary told IANS.

As per the IPL Operational Rules accessed by IANS, clause 14 of section 2 of the IPL Operational Rules state that each person subject to the operational rules shall not, whether during a match or otherwise, act or omit to act in any way which would or might reasonably be anticipated to have an adverse effect on the image and/or reputation of any Team, any Franchisee, any Player, any Team Official, the BCCI, the League and/or the Game or which would otherwise bring any of the foregoing into disrepute.

It further state that the ombudsman and the commission may suspend a team or franchisee from the league if any person representing the team/franchise breaches clause 14 of section 2.

While adjudicating in the IPL betting matter against CSK and Rajasthan Royals, the Lodha panel had taken into consideration section 4, rule 1.1 of the Operational Rules, which puts strict obligations on each franchisee that its team officials complies with the regulations.

This was to ensure that cricket should be played not only within the laws, but also within the spirit of game and nothing was done by its representatives (Team Officials), players and etc on the field or off the field which is contrary to the spirit of the game or which adversely affects the reputation of the game.

This saw the Lodha panel not just ban CSK team principal Gurunath Meiyappan and RR co-owner Raj Kundra for life from any matches conducted by BCCI, but also suspended CSK and RR for two years.

It is this precedent that is set to haunt the KXIP since CSK had been suspended for two years despite there being no adverse finding of misconduct against any player or the team.

In fact, even as per the Lodha report, RR was suspended for Kundra’s act of bringing the game into disrepute by betting and the three players’ case wasn’t the focal point in deciding the quantum of punishment.

Whereas, in this particular case, a team owner has actually been convicted of a criminal offence.

A BCCI executive said that it was strange that no statement had been made on such a matter by CEO Rahul Johri.

“It has been 24 hours and one has not heard a peep out of the BCCI CEO on a matter of this magnitude. Are we looking at a scenario where every transgression is becoming an opportunity for someone to try and build friendships at the cost of BCCI’s image and the purity of the game and its administration?” the executive questioned.

Sadly, even the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) have not issued a statement on the matter even though the reputation of the league and the board is clearly at stake.