Reports | BCCI may stage IPL in first week of May

The coronavirus pandemic has created a pandemonium across the country has seen the nation come to an almost standstill and the fate of the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League is also hanging in balance as public health is the priority. But in what comes as a huge boost for sports lovers, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) believes that it can still pull off the league if things come under control by April end and the first game is played by the first week of May.

Since then, speculations are rife over the IPL even happening this year. However, if the recent reports are to be believed, the BCCI official has revealed that the tournament can still happen if the opening match takes place in the first week of May. According to him, BCCI can take ideas from how they had organised the IPL in 2009 when the tournament had to be shifted to South Africa due to the Lok Sabha elections.

 "The latest we can wait is till the end of April. If the first game isn't played by the first week of May then it will be almost impossible to have the league this year. Even if we have to wait till end of April to follow all the procedures, we can take a cue from the South Africa edition and conduct the league successfully. If you remember, that was the shortest IPL with 59 games played over 37 days and we can do the same. But certain measures will have to be taken," said BCCI official as quoted by Times of India.

If the IPL was to be altogether cancelled, it could cost the BCCI Rs 3,869.5 crore, which would include Rs 3,269.5 crore of broadcast and streaming revenue and Rs 200 crore and Rs 400 crore of central sponsorship and title sponsorship revenues respectively. Star India had bagged IPL's media rights for Rs 16,347.5 crore for five years, while Vivo had bagged the title sponsorship for Rs 2,000 crore for five years.

A Plethora of sporting events have been badly affected by the virus causing hue and cry across the world. High-profile events like Euro 2020, French Open and Olympics to some extent have been cancelled or postponed putting the stakeholders in really bad shape. If IPL's 13th edition, gets cancelled then it's going to be rough loss of Rs 1200 crores only for the sponsors let alone the event itself.