Everyone's safety is our priority, stick to postponement of IPL: Ganguly

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly on Friday said that everyone's safety is the priority and for the time being let us stick to the postponement of the IPL in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.

"Let us stick to postponement as for now. Everyone's safety is our priority," Ganguly told reporters here.

The BCCI on Friday postponed the IPL to April 15 as a precautionary measure against the ongoing COVID-19 situation.

The BCCI will hold the IPL's governing council meeting on Saturday, March 14. The board has decided to invite all franchises for IPL's governing council meeting.

Amidst coronavirus fears, the cricketing board had mainly two options-- either postpone IPL or play it behind closed doors.

The Central government has suspended all visas to India till April 15 as part of measures to contain the spread of the pandemic. If the board decided to go on with the tournament as planned, then the availability of foreign players would have been in doubt.

The 13th edition of IPL was scheduled to commence from March 29, with Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings meeting at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai for the first match.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday had declared the coronavirus outbreak a 'pandemic' and expressed deep concern. The coronavirus disease was first detected in Wuhan in China's Hubei province, in late December, and has since spread worldwide.