IPL 2019: Opening ceremony scraped, money to be donated to families of Pulwama attack martyrs

As a mark of respect to the slain CRPF men, the BCCI has been decided to scrap the ceremony for the event's 12th edition beginning March 23

Almost a month ahead of the twelfth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the BCCI’s Committee of Administrators (CoA) has taken a major step in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attacks. The apex board on Friday announced the cancellation of the opening ceremony and decided to allocate the money to the families of the 40 CRPF personnel killed in the unfortunate incident.

The opening ceremonies of the cash-rich T20 league are heady mix glitz and glamour with performances by Bollywood stars being the highlight. However, as a mark of respect to the slain CRPF men, it has been decided to scrap the ceremony for the event's 12th edition beginning March 23.

“We will not have any inaugural function for the IPL and the money budgeted for that goes to the martyrs' families,” said CoA chairman Vinod Rai.

The CoA took the call at a meeting here on Friday. However, they failed to find a consensus over playing against arch-rivals Pakistan in the upcoming ICC World Cup. Rai stated that the BCCI will write to the ICC, making a strong representation of boycotting countries that sponsor terrorism.

The unfortunate Pulwama terror attack

The Pulwama attack took place on February 14 which killed 40 CRPF personnel. Its reverberations are being felt in the sporting arena as well. There has been a call to boycott the June 16 World Cup face-off against Pakistan from some prominent names in Indian cricket such as senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and former captains Mohammed Azharuddin and Sourav Ganguly.