The coronavirus pandemic has prompted the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to indefinitely postpone the Indian Premier League 2020 (IPL 2020) season.
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The 13th season of the annual T20 league was to get underway by March 29 but was first suspended for two weeks before being postponed indefinitely after a nationwide lockdown in India.
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While speaking to AFP, BCCI Treasurer Arun Dhumal stated that the board will take a huge financial hit if the IPL 2020 is cancelled.
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He said that in case IPL 2020 does not take place, the BCCI would lose close to Rs 4000 crore ($530 million dollar) if not more.
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“We’ll be able to assess it once we know when we’re going to start [the cricket],” Arun Dhumal told Cricbuzz.
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“As of now, every bilateral that we miss, we’ll be losing money. And if we’re not able to organise IPL then that’ll lead to a big hit. Not having an IPL would end up with a revenue loss of about Rs 4000 crore.”
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He admitted his doubts about the staging of the tournament this year and stated that BCCI will come up with an exact revenue loss amount once they are sure about the number of matches lost.
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Dhumal said all the cricket boards will have to come together and chalk out a strategy on how to revive cricket and limit financial damage.
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Everybody needs to sit across a table and work out their strategies on how to bring cricket back and how to make up for their losses because all of the boards are going to be suffering these losses and it would affect everyone, and it would impact everyone, all the stakeholders. Once cricket resumes, we’ll talk it out with all the boards and help each other and revive world cricket,” he said.
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