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IPL Trophy. Photo by: Deepak Malik /SPORTZPICS for BCCI

The chances of Indian Premier League (IPL) taking place this year looks bleak now after India government’s latest decision on visa policy in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. As of now, the BCCI has maintained that the thirteenth edition of the league would take place as scheduled with some precaution.

However, the Indian government might have dealt a huge blow to the BCCI after  a second meeting of the Group of Ministers on Wednesday cancelled all visas, except for a few official categories, till April 15.

In the meeting held at Nirman Bhavan, it was decided that all existing visas, except diplomatic, official, UN/international organisations, employment and project visas, stand suspended till April 15 as the coronavirus outbreak has already seen over 60 positive cases in India. Thus it would be interesting to see whether the government provided visas to the overseas players for the league that is scheduled to start on March 29.

IPL
MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma with the IPL trophy (Credits: Twitter)

On Wednesday, the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). The chief of WHO also expressed his “deep concern” over the “alarming levels of inaction” in combating the virus spread.

But the BCCI have not given up yet. The Indian cricket board’s officials are still keeping their fingers crossed and have said that they will keep working closely with the concerned departments to ensure that all possible precautions are taken.

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“The present scenario is a huge challenge for the BCCI-IPL and it is one where the circumstances are changing every few hours, and the BCCI has no control over these circumstances. As is usually the case in such situations, the BCCI would be in regular touch with the concerned departments to take the best possible course of action in the interest of the game, the players, the fans and the league,” a BCCI official told IANS.

The coronavirus has taken a toll on sporting events all across the globe and is fast affecting cricket too. On Wednesday, Bangladesh Cricket Board postponed the two-match T20I series between Asia XI and World XI while the inaugural Africa T20 Cup was called off. The way things are going at the moment, it would not be at all surprising if the IPL is postponed or called off as the world fight against the deadly virus.

Also Read: BCCI Issues Guidelines To The Entire Indian Camp To Prevent Getting Coronavirus