During the Covid19 pandemic, the world cricket is going through turbulent times. The administrators, players, stakeholders and fans – everyone is looking for answer to the same questions – When will the sport resume ? Will IPL 2020 happen ? How Covid19 will impact the domestic cricket ? How the cricket commercials will be impacted ?
BCCI’S CEO Rahul Johri says – “The flavour of IPL is that best players of the world come and play, and everyone is committed to maintaining that flow. But it will be a step-by-step process. We can’t expect normalisation tomorrow. We will try our utmost to maintain the flavor of IPL being top Indian players along with the top international cricketers”
Johri accepted scheduling IPL won’t be easy even in October-November. “When flights resume, everyone has to quarantine themselves before playing. We will have to look at how that will impact the schedules, which as it is are tight. Imagine you have to factor in 14-day quarantine prior to practice also. So, there are a lot of moving parts. But we are still optimistic. Hopefully, the situation will improve after monsoon, and we will approach it then,”
Will the current situation impact Commercials of IPL & Indian Cricket ?
BCCI’S CEO Rahul Johri says – “IPL is one of the greatest engagers. More people watched the IPL last year than those who voted for general elections. For sponsors, cricket is a leader and it will lead the way. The recovery will be sharper than a V-shaped recovery. Take my word, cricket and commercials will comeback with a bang.”
Will all Cricket be without crowds, Gate Revenues surely will be impacted ??
“Matches without crowds as per the current situations will not just be in IPL but also international cricket. Although it (gate receipts) gives us small percentage of our revenue, it is important because bulk of that goes in maintenance of stadiums. However, in the short term, before we get back to normal, we can live without (gate receipts) it.”
“These times are not limited to one or two countries. Everyone is impacted and affected. Everyone has to sit together led by ICC and scheduling issues need to be addressed. There needs to be collaborative effort, everyone will have to come together to find solution to this”.
