Name a major sporting event that is still to be cancelled in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak? It’s right at home. It’s the Indian Premier League. The Olympics, Euro 2020, Wimbledon and many more competitions attracting global attention have either been pushed back by a year or postponed indefinitely. As far as the IPL goes, the BCCI has put it on hold till April 15. Even though everybody knows that the situation in the country will be far from normal in about a week from now, the richest cricket board is still to defer its blue-riband event further.

Despite knowing that it’s impossible to stage the IPL in the immediate future, the BCCI and broadcasters are ostensibly looking at future dates and trying to work out how to hold it later this year, even if it means the scrapping of some scheduled bilateral series. While rescheduling is fine as long as the respective cricket boards and other stakeholders agree, the reluctance of the BCCI to state that fresh IPL dates will be announced later is hard to understand.

Are they under pressure from the broadcasters—who have bought rights for five years for an astonishing Rs 16,000 crore—to hold it this year so that their interests are protected? If so, it is the sign of an organisation that has lost its own decision-making abilities. Broadcasters make the BCCI rich. They can’t become the masters.

Even if restrictions are relaxed in a month from now, there is no chance that players, coaches, commentators and technicians from other countries will be allowed to mingle with their Indian counterparts in a festive atmosphere in a cricket stadium this soon. Unless the T20 World Cup in Australia in October-November is cancelled, there is no room for IPL this year. Even that may not be long enough. So the IPL cannot be held in the next six months at least. Knowing this and still hoping against hope indicates that the BCCI as a body is concerned only about financial gains.