Sourav Ganguly also hinted that the governing body may opt for pay cuts of its employees if the situation worsens or it completely fails to stage the IPL.
Mumbai: BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and Secretary Jay Shah. (Photo: IANS)
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president, Sourav Ganguly, has voiced his concern for the inability to host the Indian Premier League due to the COVID-19 pandemic and said that it would cost them around Rs 4000 crore.
The IPL 2020, which was scheduled to be played from March 29 was earlier postponed to April 15 before it was suspended for an indefinite period of time due to the crisis caused by the novel coronavirus.
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“We will have to examine our financial situation, see how much money we have and take a call. Not hosting the Indian Premier League (IPL) will cause losses to the tune of Rs. 4,000 crore which is huge,” Ganguly told as quoted by mid-day.
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Earlier, BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal had also said that the board was likely to suffer a loss of at least USD 530 million if the 13th edition of the IPL did not happen this year.
IPL’s suspension would force the official broadcaster Star India to suffer a loss of over Rs 3200 crore. They had brought the broadcasting rights of the cash-rich league for a 5-year period between 2018 and 2022 at a whopping Rs 16,347.50 crore.
Meanwhile, Ganguly also hinted that the governing body may opt for pay cuts of its employees if the situation worsens or it completely fails to stage the IPL.
“If the IPL takes place, we won’t have to go in for pay cuts. We’ll manage things,” the former Indian captain said.
However, there have been various media reports suggesting BCCI is mulling alternative windows like August-September and October-November to stage the 2020’s edition of the cash-rich tournament. But all of the speculations lacked an official backing as the fate of IPL continues to hang in doubt.
But the BCCI treasurer had quashed all the “media speculations” and said that the board would only think about the IPL after the crisis gets over.
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