If we fail to complete the IPL, the loss will be close to INR 2500 crore: Sourav Ganguly

The 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has been suspended due to multiple positive cases inside the bio-bubble. COVID-19 positive cases in as many as four teams led to the BCCI being forced to stop the tournament with immediate effect. However, the board is keen on resuming the tournament later in the year and the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly himself has opened up on the issue.

BCCI has already incurred a huge loss after they had to suspend IPL 2021 indefinitely. During this time, the story was similar for the board last year when although cases were less in the country, the government had announced a complete lockdown. In September, IPL 2020 was played albeit in the UAE in a strict bio-bubble where no cases emerged inside the bio-secure environment.

Unfortunately, with the second COVID-19 wave rampant across India, BCCI couldn’t replicate similar success in India. Rather, the Indian board is now desperately looking for ways to conduct the rest of the tournament so that they can recover losses. Sourav Ganguly, while speaking to The Telegraph, realised that they will need to do a lot of shuffling before organising the tournament.

The former Indian captain also revealed that the board might have to suffer a huge loss of Rs 2500 crore if they don’t complete the IPL this year. “There has got to be a lot of shuffling. Only a day has passed since we suspended the IPL. We have to speak to other boards and see if a window can be made available before the T20 World Cup. Lot of things are involved and we will slowly start working on them.

“If we fail to complete the IPL, the loss will be close to INR 2500 crore (USD 340 million approx). That is going by early estimates,” he said.

Ganguly unsure how virus entered the bubble

Meanwhile, Sourav Ganguly is unsure how virus entered the strict bio-secure bubble and cited that travelling could’ve been the only source for it. He asserted that the board will do a ‘post-mortem’ on the matter. “I really don’t know what led to this situation inside the biosecurity bubble. We will have to do a post-mortem and look into the reasons behind this.

“But travelling could have been an issue. Last year [IPL 2020] in the UAE, everything was restricted to three venues and within a limited area. There was no air travel involved. Here we had six different venues,” the former India cricketer further added.