India’s cricket board on Friday suspended the money-spinning Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 tournament amid rising tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad, according to Indian media.
“A cloud of uncertainty had loomed over the future of the ongoing edition since the cancellation of Thursday’s match between Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals in Dharamsala midway following air raid alerts in neighbouring cities of Jammu and Pathankot,” the Press Trust of India reported.
“It does not look nice that cricket goes on while the country is at war,” a BCCI official told PTI, confirming the suspension of the league, which was to wind up on May 25 in Kolkata.
An official announcement was expected shortly, Indian media said.
Thursday’s IPL match was abandoned midway after fighting began in India’s border regions, but the cricket board attributed the disruption to a power failure at the stadium in the hill city of Dharamsala.
The world’s richest cricket tournament began its current season on March 22, and the final fixture was scheduled to be played on May 25, with matches being spread over 13 venues across the country.
According to ESPN Cricinfo, IPL 2025 was 58 games old, including the abandonment in Dharamsala. There were 12 games left to play in the group stage, scheduled for Lucknow (2), Hyderabad, Ahmedabad (3), Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru (2), Mumbai, Jaipur, followed by the playoffs, to be played in Hyderabad and Kolkata.
Pakistan and India have been locked in conflict since Wednesday, when India targeted multiple locations in Pakistan, claiming they were “terrorist infrastructure” in response to a deadly attack in occupied Kashmir last month.
New Delhi named two Pakistani nationals as suspects and accused Islamabad of being involved in the attack, a charge Pakistan denied. Subsequently, Islamabad sought an independent probe.
