What to expect from BCCI meeting on Sunday: Restarting IPL 2025 after ceasefire, bringing foreign players back and more

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will be holding a meeting on Sunday in order to discuss the possibility of resuming the 18th season of the Indian Premier League, which had been suspended for a week on Friday amid India’s escalating hostilities with Pakistan.

Follow all developments on India-Pakistan tensions, Operation Sindoor and ceasefire announcement

The meeting will be taking place a day after India agreed to a ceasefire initiated by Pakistan and mediated by the US, which required the two nuclear-armed south Asian neighbours to end all military action from 5 pm.

“The war has stopped. In the new situation BCCI office bearers, officials and IPL Governing Council, will discuss the matter tomorrow (Sunday) and take a call. We will see which can be the best schedule to complete the tournament,” BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla told PTI on Saturday.

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The biggest challenge for secretary Devajit Saikia, president Roger Binny and for the rest of the BCCI will be to get the league back on track by Thursday or Friday, when the week-long suspension comes to an end. The ceasefire should come as good news for the BCCI as well as Pakistan Cricket Board, who suspended the 10th edition of the Pakistan Super League on the same day the IPL was halted.

However, Pakistan’s violation of the ceasefire within hours on Saturday has shattered hopes for peace between the two nations for now, leading to fears of the ongoing conflict between the two nations only getting heightened in the coming days.

The BCCI, thus, might be tempted to wait for a few more days by extending the suspension instead of restarting right away after carefully analysing the ongoing situation.

There were reports that the remainder of the season could take place in Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad in the southern part of the country – well beyond the reach of the Pakistan armed forces, who have responded to the Indian military’s co-ordinated strikes on terror camps as well as radars and air defence systems with indiscriminate shelling and drone attacks.

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Shukla, however, added that that plan was to be enforced in case the two nations continued to exchange fire, and might not be necessary if the ceasefire is respected.

“That was an option when war was going on. There are many options which have been discussed. The ceasefire has just been announced, give some time to us, we will discuss and then only a decision will be taken,” former IPL chairman Shukla added.

Following Pakistan’s ceasefire violation, the BCCI might end up sticking to this plan in order to try and get the ongoing IPL season concluded by the end of the month.

There’s also the possibility of staging double-headers for the remaining matches of the tournament, which includes 12 league games excluding the Punjab Kings-Delhi Capitals match that was called off shortly after getting underway in Dharamsala.

And a major headache for the BCCI as well as for the 10 franchises will be to bring the overseas players back for the remainder of the tournament and to try and convince them that their safety will not be in danger amid Indo-Pak hostilities.

What makes this even more challenging is the fact that several overseas players will be looking to get some much-needed rest after playing in the IPL for more than a month, with Australia and South Africa set to lock horns in the final of the ICC World Test Championship at the Lord’s Cricket Ground from 11 June.