BCCI Set to Incur Massive Financial Losses After Failure to Insure IPL 2020 on Time

The coronavirus pandemic is set to leave a massive hole in Indian cricket board’s (BCCI) coffers after they failed to take insurance cover for the IPL 13 on time.  As of now, the IPL this year has been postponed indefinitely due to the ongoing coronavirus-enforced lockdown in India.

According to a research report by the Howden Insurance Brokers, a private organisation that brokers insurance deals for several IPL teams, by the time BCCI  contacted their insurance company, it had removed COVID-19 from their coverage clause.

Not only BCCI, several IPL franchises also take out insurance policies in case of any eventuality. They also began approaching their respective insurance firms only by February-March and by then, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. Consequently, either the cover was unavailable or the cost skyrocketed.

“The franchises involved in IPL approached the insurance market from February-March 2020 as they have training camps beginning mid-March. Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus and the WHO declaring a pandemic, 90% of the franchises were not provided insurance cover. Typically, immediately following an outbreak, cover becomes unavailable or quite expensive,” Hindustan Times quoted the report as saying.

The leading English daily further quoted unnamed chief executives of two IPL teams as confirming they aren’t covered.  “We checked with our insurance company. The cancellation clause does not cover pandemic. It’s too late now,” an official was quoted as saying.

“We will see what’s the legal interpretation of force majeure in this scenario. The government has enforced a lockdown, and the BCCI can do nothing but wait for things to improve,” a BCCI official said.

The total loss for the stakeholders reportedly could be around Rs 5,000 crore.