It had been scheduled to start on March 29.
The Indian authorities mentioned late on Wednesday it could cancel nearly all visas issued for journey to India till April 15 to attempt to stop the unfold of the virus, and the nation’s sports activities secretary mentioned on Thursday the nationwide cricket workforce’s coming matches ought to be performed in empty stadiums.
“The Board of Control for Cricket in India has decided to suspend IPL 2020 till 15th April 2020, as a precautionary measure against the ongoing Novel Corona Virus (COVID-19) situation,” the board mentioned in a press release.
“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.”
Greater than 134,500 folks have been contaminated globally and greater than 4,900 have died due to the flu-like virus, in response to a Reuters tally of presidency bulletins. Sport occasions have been both cancelled or postponed globally in latest weeks.
India’s nationwide cricket workforce is locked in a three-match one-day worldwide sequence towards South Africa, the primary of which was washed out resulting from rain within the northern Indian metropolis of Dharamsala on Thursday.
The BCCI mentioned the remaining two matches – at Lucknow and Kolkata – can be performed with out the presence of crowd.
The 13th season of the eight-team IPL had been scheduled to start out with a match between defending champions Mumbai Indians and Chennai Tremendous Kings.
The cash-rich IPL, that includes celeb house owners and prime enterprise homes, attracts the world’s prime cricketers. As per the earlier schedule, the franchise-based competitors was set to run for seven weeks with the ultimate on Might 17.
The IPL’s model worth has soared through the years since its 2008 launch and grew to an estimated $6.eight billion in 2019, in response to New York-based company finance advisory agency Duff & Phelps.
IPL 2020 postponed resulting from coronavirus outbreak
