IPL is very important financially and for players’ future as well, claims Jonty Rhodes

While many people privy to the developments have commented that the T20 World Cup is a no show this summer, with Sourav Ganguly announcing that the Asia Cup stands cancelled already, there has been an increased certainty about the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League happening in a cramped manner in October-November. 

"IPL is also very important financially and regarding the future of the players as well. The best players in the world play in it. So it is hard to imagine a year passing without it. To me it is meaningless to expect the cricket calendar without an IPL.”

Considering the IPL will eat up the T20 World Cup calendar once the Australian edition is postponed by a year, there have been questions about how India will be able to host the tournament with virus spread getting berserk. However, Rhodes expressed that the logistics for a local event is less challenging than a global one. 

"In IPL, it will be that the players will come from outside, they will be quarantined, the teams will get tested, but the fans in the IPL will be from India. Whereas with the World Cup, it is the fans of other teams who will also come to watch the match. It would be very difficult to stage the tournament in such a situation. The Olympics has also been postponed due to this pandemic. Looking at the current situation, I think there are dark clouds in the T20 World Cup," he added.