Coronavirus outbreak causes postponement of Everest Premier League 2020

What's the story?

The fourth season of the Everest Premier League has been postponed due to the growing threat of coronavirus infections. The Government of Nepal instructed the organizers to take this decision in order to avoid mass gatherings in the nation.

The background

Big names from the T20 world like Chris Gayle, Sandeep Lamichhane and Mohammad Shahzad were set to be a part of the fourth edition of Nepal's premier T20 league. However, it seems like the local fans will have to wait some time to see the Universe Boss play in front of them.

Sandeep Lamichhane

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The heart of the matter

As reported by ESPNCricinfo, although there has been only one case of the coronavirus infection in Nepal, the organizers have decided to delay the tourney. The managing director of EPL 2020, Aamir Akhtar, addressed the media about the same and said:

"We are naturally all sad at today's announcement of having to temporarily postpone the 2020 EPL, but we simply have to put the health and well-being of all Nepalis and our overseas players before everything else."

He further thanked the Government of Nepal for their co-operation and continued:

"We would like to thank the government of Nepal for their support and counsel through this challenging period, and we support entirely the professional advice throughout. I would like to assure that as soon as we are able to go ahead with the 2020 season, we will be working to ensure that it will be the spectacular event the likes of which Nepal has never seen before."

It is worth noting that the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly recently stated that the coronavirus epidemic will not have any impact on IPL 2020, and that the matches will happen as scheduled. Besides, the organizers of PSL 2020 also have not altered their original schedule.

2019 IPL Final - Mumbai v Chennai

What's next?

EPL 2020 was supposed to commence from 14th March, and this decision to postpone the tournament has come at a very advanced stage. It will be interesting to see when the competition will begin, and how many of the stars will remain committed to participating in it.