The Indian Premier League Governing Council (IPL GC) will hold an all-important meeting in Mumbai on Saturday to discuss the viability of hosting the IPL 2020, scheduled to start from March 29, amidst the coronavirus scare that is forcing several sporting events across the world to be either postponed or suspended.
The meeting comes after the Central Government on Wednesday announced that all tourist visas will be suspended until April 15.
The IPL GC meeting will be headed by Brijesh Patel and attended by BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah. The council will discuss the possibility of conducting IPL matches behind closed doors – like some football games in Europe – as a majority of the revenue is generated through broadcast rights than gate receipts.
Another major topic of discussion will be the participation of foreign players, many of whom add star power to the T20 extravaganza. International players fall under the B-Sports or business visa category. Since they do not come under the list of exemptions put out by the Union Ministry of India, their participation in the IPL 2020 remains doubtful at this point.
Well, things remain bleak for this season’s IPL, with the World Health Organization (WHO) having categorized the disease as a pandemic.
