IPL 2019: Holding the event just before World Cup 2019 continues to be a huge risk 

Ever since the Indian Premier League (IPL) came into existence, the cash-rich tournament has been credited to have played an instrumental role towards the rise of Indian cricket. Not only has it provided an excellent platform for young Indian talents to showcase their cricketing skills, it has also given them a perfect opportunity to enhance their cricketing knowledge by sharing the dressing room with some of the most renowned international players.

At the same time, the highly competitive cricket extravaganza has thoroughly entertained the cricket fans around the globe through the sheer cricketing excellence it displays. In just a few years, the event has become the most awaited cricketing tournament every year and today, it is undoubtedly the world’s best T20 league.

Therefore, despite being surrounded with several unwanted controversies – the sacking of Lalit Modi, the infamous post-match parties, the termination of Kochi Tuskers, the deplorable match fixing scandals, the withdrawal of Pune Warriors, the two-year bans on Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals – the IPL continues to be admired by cricket enthusiasts.

However, the scheduling of IPL 2019 has the potential of transforming into one of the biggest controversies in the history of Indian cricket.

Apart from producing exhilarating cricket over the years, the entertaining IPL has also been guilty of keeping players out of the cricket field through serious injuries. Dwayne Bravo (CSK, 2008, shoulder injury), Aaron Finch (MI, 2015, hamstring injury), Ashish Nehra (SRH, 2016, hamstring injury), Faf du Plessis (RPS, 2016, finger fracture), Shaun Marsh (KXIP, 2016, back injury), Kedar Jhadav (CSK, 2018, hamstring injury) and Shikhar Dhawan (SRH, 2018, elbow injury) are just a few instances of players that have had unfortunate injuries while playing the tournament.

And yet, despite the fact that the world’s biggest cricketing event, the ICC World Cup 2019 is just a few months away, the BCCI chose to go ahead with the long and extremely intense tournament. This is in sharp contrast to the previous World Cup years (2011 and 2015), where the IPL was held after the World Cup.

Though the IPL may appear like a perfect starter before the main course, it may actually end up causing some severe food poisoning.

It has only been a few days (and not even a week) since the IPL has started and already India’s bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has injured his shoulder, while playing Mumbai Indians' opening game against Delhi Capitals. Though fortunately the injury was later discovered to be only a shoulder spasm, it could have possibly resulted in something more serious and needless to say, hampered India’s chanced at the mega event.

Over the past couple of years, the BCCI along with team management have worked tirelessly to build a well-balanced team to not just represent India but also win the prestigious title. But if there are untimely injuries to key players that will, without an inch of a doubt, completely disrupt the team at the marquee event.

Though BCCI has strongly briefed all eight IPL franchises and the players to look after their workload management, this precautionary effort can only minimize the risk rather than completely eliminate it.

Considering the IPL’s history of injuries, it was a never a brilliant idea to have the tournament just prior to the World Cup. The BCCI have taken a big risk and seemed to have completely ignored a very famous and wise proverb - precaution is better than cure.

Now, they can only hope that their decision will not come back to haunt them in the near future.

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