'We are closely monitoring the situation' - BCCI official opens up about status of IPL 2020

The threat of coronavirus has taken the whole world by shock. Compared to other countries, India hasn’t been severely hit but still, the disease could get nasty in a country of 1.3 billion people. Due to the concerns of COVID-19, the Indian government first decided to stop allocating visas for all the foreign citizens. This resulted in the BCCI deciding to delay the commencement of the IPL.

The tournament was scheduled to begin on March 29. The start was shifted to April 15. After the spreading of the virus across the globe kept increasing with every passing day. Finally, the decision to lock down the country was announced by the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. The 21-day lockdown clearly meant that the tournament wasn’t going to begin on April 15.

India is currently under a 21-day lockdown amid Coronavirus outbreak

The lockdown is supposed to go on until April 15 and there hasn’t been anything so far so make people believe that things are getting better in the country. Due to this, the rumours regarding the cancellation of the IPL started surfacing everywhere. But in an interview, a BCCI official revealed the entire scenario in the BCCI office right now.

The official said that there hasn’t been any decision taken by the board yet. According to the official, the board is monitoring the current situation and will make a decision in a few days.

“No decision has been taken on IPL yet, we are closely monitoring the situation, and we will take a call accordingly,” the BCCI official said. “The BCCI is concerned and sensitive about all its stakeholders, and public health in general, and it is taking all necessary steps to ensure that all people related to IPL including fans have a safe cricketing experience,” said the official as quoted by IndiaTV.

Earlier, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly had stated a possibility of having a short IPL. Even though there wasn’t any clarification of the shortened IPL, Ganguly had stated that BCCI will look into everything before making a final call. Another report had arrived a few days ago where a BCCI official shared his opinion. According to the official, BCCI can host the entire season of the IPL even if they start the tournament on May 1.