IPL 2020 | Everyone Loses At The Hands Of COVID-19

Match between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knightriders during DLF IPL 2008 (Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan)

At the beginning of 2019, the novel coronavirus began to emerge and spread. Due to the risks of contracting the virus, the Indian Premier League has been suspended. The indefinite suspension of the IPL 2020 will affect the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s annual revenue. Additionally, the suspension will also affect many players financially and professionally.

The IPL is the richest cricket league in the world, bringing in the best cricketers from around the world. This tournament is played during an eight-week time frame usually between the end of March to mid-May. However, due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Indian government suspended all visas, and later on, implemented a nationwide lockdown. These two actions led to the IPL 2020 being suspended indefinitely as overseas players were not able to get visas and spectators could not come to watch the games at the stadiums.

 Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the BCCI and IPL stakeholders are projected to lose up to ₹60,000,000,000 ($788,000,000).

“Obviously if the organization takes a financial hit, the salaries of the employees get affected as well. The pay cuts are a possibility,” a BCCI official said to the Times Now News.

The BCCI and the teams are losing money due to the possibility of no IPL which would lead to many players getting no salary. The players are not only facing financial problems but they are also facing job insecurities.

“For athletes, there would be a range of experiences, from welcome relief for the established to anxiety and insecurity, both professionally and financially, for possibly a greater number,” former Rajasthan Royals coach Paddy Upton said to the Hindustan Times.

The IPL is a platform for many new and young players to show their talents to get a chance to play international cricket. Without the IPL many of the new players could have anxiety professionally and finality as they would have to wait another year to show their talent and get paid. However many including fans, players, the team owners, and the BCCI would want to see some form of the IPL in 2020.

“If it was a choice of no IPL or a domestic player-only IPL I would choose the latter,""I think we will have some form of the tournament this year. It will probably be a shortened tournament”Rajasthan Royals majority owner Manoj Badale said to ESPNCricInfo.

Badale still wants to see an IPL regardless of whether it be a shortened season without fans and international players. An official has mentioned that playing behind closed doors will be the last resort as it would hurt the BCCI financially and the games would not have the same feeling. There are talks for having the IPL later in the year when the COVID-19 Pandemic becomes controlled. Yet for now, the IPL is indefinitely suspended, players are not getting paid, and the BCCI is losing a lot of money.

Jacob Robles also contributed to this article