The coronavirus pandemic has already forced the BCCI to postpone IPL 13 twice so far and given the present situation, there is no clear picture regarding the future of the league. The board is looking at a September-October and October-November window to stage the league but that isn’t final yet.
Players’ availability will be one of the issues even if BCCI stages IPL. The number of restrictions could see a few overseas players miss out on joining their respective franchises. So are the franchises considering playing IPL without foreign players?
Ness Wadia, the co-owner of Kings XI Punjab, said that the T20 league needs international stars, clearly hinting that the league won’t take place without foreign players.
“IPL is an international tournament made by Indians. It is the premier cricketing event in the world, therefore it needs an international platform and international stars,” Wadia told PTI.
“But it remains to be seen which of the foreign players are allowed to travel at that time (considering the restrictions). I feel there are too many variables for the BCCI at the moment to even have a calculated guess on when it might happen. What if tomorrow the cases keep rising, what happens then? It would be unwise to think of anything other than COVID-19 for the moment,” he added. India hasn’t resumed international flight services yet and hence, no foreign player can enter the country till the restrictions are lifted.
