Coronavirus has impacted the sporting industry. It has disturbed the workings of even the biggest sporting body, the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The cricketing operations have had changes as BCCI had to virtually shut down its headquarter in Mumbai. Not only that but also was forced to advise employees to work from home.
To take the step of precaution, a circular was passed to the staff on Monday. It stated that they could work from home for the next few days for health safety purposes.
According to sources, the employees have been asked to “work from home” with all the cricketing operations already being suspended until further notice.
“The BCCI employees were today notified that the headquarters at the Wankhede Stadium will be as good as closed in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. All the staffers have been advised to work from home,” a top source from the Board told PTI on the condition of anonymity.
“However, if someone still wants to come, they can,” he added.
Last Friday, the BCCI postponed the IPL-13 to April 15 along with all other domestic tournaments, including the Irani Cup and the Women’s Challenger Trophy.
114 cases have been reported positive for coronavirus including two deaths. The number of death cases globally has crossed 6,000 and the number of infected people is over 160,000.
It is not just in India but across the globe, the companies and firms are taking necessary steps to ensure employees work from home in such a deadly situation. The BCCI is also taking safety measures similarly.
The National Cricket Academy (NCA) has also stopped its various zonal camps. However, rehabilitation programs at the Bengaluru center were still on as on Monday.
The IPL franchises have also called off their pre-tournament training camps. Royal Challengers Bangalore led by Virat Kohli, were the latest team to follow the same steps.
“Keeping in mind the health and safety of everyone involved, the RCB Training Camp scheduled to start on the 21st of March has been deferred until further notice. We request everyone to follow the guidelines provided by the Health Ministry and stay safe,” RCB tweeted.
Keeping in mind the health and safety of everyone involved, the RCB Training Camp scheduled to start on the 21st of March has been deferred until further notice. We request everyone to follow the guidelines provided by the Health Ministry and stay safe. 🙏🏻#PlayBold pic.twitter.com/DTVog3x5mB
— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) March 16, 2020
The IPL franchises through conference calls among themselves are trying to explore the possible options and alternatives.
With the IPL already losing out on 17 days, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has hinted that one of the options could be a “truncated IPL”. But the condition of this is only if the situation improves by April 15.
In the case of a truncated IPL, eight teams could be divided into two groups with the top four going into the knockouts.
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