The Board of Control for Cricket in India and franchise owners will discuss the new schedule for this year's Indian Premier League later this month or in early April.
The 2020 tournament was scheduled to start on 29 March, but has been delayed to 15 April as preventative measures against the spread of the coronavirus pandemic continue.
Kings XI Punjab co-owner Ness Wadia attended a meeting with the BCCI, Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner Shah Rukh Khan, Mumbai Indians owner Akash Ambani and others on Saturday.
“The meeting was to discuss the possible scenarios. Number one, most importantly, everyone in India and the world must understand, the BCCI, nor the IPL nor broadcaster Star is here to gain monetary benefit by having the IPL,” said Wadia after the meeting.
“All the stakeholders, especially the BCCI and owners and Star, feel that it is incorrect to think about even one rupee. So we are not interested in money, we are not interested in having any gain from this situation and trying to hold the IPL without a clear understanding of the situation. Having said that, number one is the health and safety of everyone is looked after.
“Number two, we will follow whatever the government direction is. From a third perspective, no-one is in a position to say when it's going to start. We will review the situation after two or three weeks and hopefully by then the coronavirus cases will reduce. We should be clear that the most important thing is health and safety, not financial gain at the moment. We are not here to earn money, we are here to serve and protect the people.”
Wadia quashed suggestion that the tournament, which features several players from Australia, South Africa, England, New Zealand and other nations, might be moved to a different country.
Overseas players at the 2020 IPL
“That's hypothesising. This is not a situation to hypothesise. This is a serious pandemic. Thousands of people have died across the world, luckily only two in India,” he added.
“As far as your next question is, ‘will the foreign players come or not?', I don't know. There is a visa ban until 15 April and then we'll see. So if IPL happens, great; if it doesn't, so be it.”
Several tournaments and series, including the Everest Premier League, South Africa's ODI tour of India, New Zealand's limited-overs tour in Australia and the World XI's T20Is against the Asia XI in Bangladesh have been cancelled or postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
