Indian Cricket team’s tour of Sri Lanka in the month of June is all set to be postponed. InsideSport has learnt from its sources in Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) that Virat Kohli’s team India will not tour to Lanka this June due to Covid19 pandemic. Indian team was schedule to travel to Sri Lanka in the month of June for 3 T20 and 3 One day Internationals match series but sources in the BCCI has told InsideSport that the tour now will not go ahead.
“No way our boys can go to Sri Lanka at this stage. Coronavirus is really getting menacing everywhere and we can’t resume cricket activities. We have discussed this informally and tour to Sri Lanka will be postponed. The official announcement in this regard will be made soon.”, said the source in BCCI to InsideSport
The postponement of the Sri Lanka tour will be second international assignment for the Indian cricket team that is getting postponed. Earlier in the month of March, India’s home series against South Africa was cancelled middle of the series and the visiting Proteas had to go back home. After than the world’s most lucrative cricket product, the Indian Premier League 2020 (IPL 2020) season got postponed indefinitely due to Coronavirus.
Postponement of India tour to Sri Lanka will be huge setback for SLC
The news will come as huge setback for the SriLanka Cricket Board (SLC) as they are looking to finalize their 3 year media rights deal with India-SL series as value driver. SLC has recently released the tender for media rights partnership in the market. The tender was released in the month of February and since then it has been repeatedly getting postponed due to low interest initially and then Covid19 issues. The tour in 2020 (3 T20 & 3 ODI’S) along with the Indian cricket team’s tour in July 2021 (3T20) holds the maximum value for any bidder. Now as 2020 tour is getting postponed, interest in SLC rights will be further diminished.
“As per our estimates India team tours (2020 & 2021) to Sri Lanka would have contributed 65-70% of SLC Media Rights values. If SLC loses June series and it does not get rescheduled this year, SLC will lose big time on the media rights values of their tender”, says a Sports Media Rights expert in the region.
The global cricket is currently in disarray with series after series getting postponed. The world cricket has already lost 110 days of LIVE international cricket up till now. The last week also witnessed two series postponement. First South Africa’s tour to Sri Lanka and then West-Indies tour to England got postponed due to Coronavirus spread. These postponements and cancellations will not only lead to scheduling nightmare for the cricket world but will permanently damage some of the cricketing nations financially.
ICC FTP March to June, 2020 – Series either cancelled or postponed
March 2020 – All Series Cancelled or Postponed
South Africa tour of India – 3 ODI (Series Cancelled midway)
New Zealand tour of Australia – 3 T20s (Series Cancelled midway)
England tour of Sri Lanka – 2 Tests (Postponed)
April 2020
Ireland tour of Zimbabwe – 1 Test & 5 T20s (Postponed)
May 2020
Bangladesh tour of Ireland – 1 Test, 3 ODIs & 3 T20s (Postponed)
June 2020
West Indies tour of England, – 3 Tests (Postponed)
New Zealand tour of Ireland – 3 ODIs & 3 T20s (Cancelled)
Australia tour of Zimbabwe – 3 ODIs (Cancelled)
India tour of Sri Lanka – 3 ODIs & 3 T20s (Postponed, Official announcement pending)
South Africa tour of SriLanka – 3 ODI’s / 3 T20 (Postponed)
West-Indies tour of Netherlands – 3 ODI’S (Postponed)
https://ift.tt/3cPb10T
Comments
Post a Comment