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India’s cricket authority has suspended the Indian Premier League, the world’s most lucrative tournament in the sport, as fears mounted over an escalating conflict with Pakistan.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India, the sport’s governing body, on Friday postponed the short-format T20 contest for one week, citing “concern and sentiments” from IPL franchises and players.
A revised schedule would be announced in “due course after a comprehensive assessment of the situation in consultation with relevant authorities and stakeholders”, the BCCI said in a statement.
The decision came after a match in Dharamshala, a city in the Himalayan foothills close to Indian-controlled Kashmir, was halted after fighting erupted along the border this week.
The IPL on Thursday relocated the match to the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat “due to logistical challenges”, it said.
India and Pakistan have been locked in conflict this week, with both sides exchanging air strikes and fire after New Delhi carried out military strikes on what it said was “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan on Wednesday.
New Delhi said the strikes were retaliation for an attack last month that killed 26 people, most of them tourists, in India-administered Kashmir. Islamabad has denied involvement in the incident and called for an independent investigation.
India’s IPL cricket season, which began on March 22, was set to run through May 25. The IPL was last partly suspended in 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, with matches later relocated to the United Arab Emirates.
On Friday, the Pakistan Cricket Board also announced that its own domestic T20 tournament, the Pakistan Super League, would move its last eight matches of the season to the UAE following the postponement of a match on Thursday in Rawalpindi, home of the army’s headquarters, where Pakistani forces said they shot down Indian drones.
Mohsin Naqvi, the PCB’s chair, said: “The PCB has decided to shift the remaining matches to UAE so that the domestic as well as foreign cricketers . . . can be saved from the possible reckless targeting by India.”
The suspension of the IPL, which has been valued at more than $6bn, could mark a blow to the media business of India’s most valuable company, Reliance Industries.
The conglomerate owned by Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man, has exclusive broadcast rights for the IPL after a merger of Reliance’s entertainment arm with Disney’s Indian assets last year.
Karan Taurani, a Mumbai-based analyst at Elara Capital, estimated that the suspension could result in losses of 30 to 40 per cent of broadcasting revenue.
The IPL’s launch in 2008 revolutionised cricket by popularising a fast-paced format that has made it the world’s second-most valuable sports league on a per-game basis after the US’s National Football League.
It has also driven rapid subscription growth to Reliance and Disney’s streaming platform, which has more than 100mn users. Reliance said last month that this year’s IPL tournament had a record opening weekend with 1.4bn digital viewers, a 35 per cent year-on-year rise.
JioStar, the joint venture broadcaster, said it supported the decision to suspend the IPL. “JioStar will work closely with all stakeholders to ensure the transition is managed in a seamless manner and everyone involved in the tournament broadcast returns home safely.”
Although it attracts cricketers from around the world, the IPL has banned Pakistani players since the Mumbai attacks of 2008.
