Indian government will decide the fate of the IPL, not BCCI – Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju

The Indian Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju has confirmed that the future of the Indian Premier League will be decided by the government and not by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. It is well known that the Indian cricket board is a private body and it doesn’t fall under the Sports Ministry.

However, there is no doubt that a big decision such as staging the IPL will be taken by the government authorities in this testing time. Rijiju has revealed that the government will take the decision on the IPL after considering the pandemic situation in the country.

The government will only give a green signal to the tournament there will be no health risks to the players. Rijiju added that the primary focus is to fight against the virus and they can not take any risk as lives would be at stake.

The IPL was to begin from March 29 but it was indefinitely postponed due to coronavirus. It is reported that the IPL might take place in October-November if the T20 World Cup is postponed. The BCCI will suffer a huge loss of INR 4000 crores if the IPL is not hosted in 2020. In fact, BCCI earns INR 380 crores annually from its share of ICC revenue.

“In India the government has to take a call and it will be depending on the situation of the pandemic, how we progress as a nation,” Rijiju told India Today TV channel.

“We can’t put the health of the nation at risk just because we want sporting events to be held. Our focus is fighting COVID-19.”

The BCCI is the richest board in the cricket world and the IPL is responsible for the major chunk of the Indian board’s revenue. The board’s president Sourav Ganguly has confirmed that they are going to adhere to the guidelines of the government.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs has given a nod to re-open the stadiums within the country, which has given a new ray of hope to the Indian board. The players will slowly get back to training under the new guidelines.

There is no doubt that the IPL will be played behind closed doors if it gets a go-ahead from the Indian government.

It would also be interesting to note how BCCI will manage to bring foreign players as travel restrictions are still on. However, things are expected to change for good.