IPL cancellation will not lead to pay-cuts, assures Sourav Ganguly

Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the BCCI are facing a race against time to fit the tournament in the calendar year 2020, with a packed international schedule towards the latter half of the year serving as a hindrance to the competition getting rescheduled.

The suspension and cancellation of several bilateral series and other tournaments has already seen cricketing boards across the world incur losses in millions, a result of which staff have been laid-off and players have been asked to take pay-cuts. Cancellation of the IPL would be a significant financial blow to the BCCI, but Sourav Ganguly has assured that the board are financially well-placed and that there would be no scenario where anyone would have to take a pay-cut, even in the case of the IPL getting cancelled.

“If the IPL takes place, we won’t have to go in for pay cuts. We’ll manage things,” Ganguly was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

Ganguly, the president of the BCCI, however, admitted that the board could lose up to Rs 4,000 crore should the T20 extravaganza get cancelled.

“We will have to examine our financial situation, see how much money we have and take a call. Not hosting the Indian Premier League (IPL) will cause losses to the tune of Rs. 4,000 crore which is huge.”

Even in the unlikely scenario of the IPL happening in the coming months, as of the moment, the tournament organizers would have no option but to play the entirety of the competition behind closed doors due to safety of the general public, and Ganguly admitted that games with no spectators would not bring the same excitement as the ones with a packed stadium.

The 47-year-old further added that in the scenario of holding matches with limited crowds, the organizers would have to take strict measures - be it when it comes to social distancing or crowd management - to ensure that the matches go ahead.

“Yes, the attraction will be less. I remember playing in such a scenario [when spectators were not allowed in for the final day after crowd disturbances at Eden Gardens] at the Asian Test Championship game against Pakistan in 1999 and there was a clear lack of excitement.

“If you have matches with restricted amount of crowds, not only would strict social distancing rules apply, the officials would also have to be very careful about how the spectators leave the galleries for home. The policing will have to be very strict. It’s a tough call and the situation we find ourselves in, is grave,” Ganguly concluded.