Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma with his teammates celebrating with Indian Premier League 2019 winning trophy after win over Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Final cricket match at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad last year. (PTI)

The Maharashtra cabinet has decided to allow upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament matches in Mumbai without the audience to prevent spread of Coronavirus. The decision is part of the measures being taken to prevent the spread of the epidemic.

The proposal was discussed in the state cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The government is expected to make a statement on this in the legislature.

On Tuesday, the state had confirmed its first five positive cases of Covid-19 — the new strain of coronavirus — which has killed more than 3,000 patients across the globe.

“We want to take all sorts of precautions in the wake of coronavirus outbreak. We have decided that no large gathering will be allowed in the state for now and will also urge people to avoid them. The issue of IPL was discussed in the cabinet meeting as well and it was decided that IPL tournament will be allowed if there will be no sale of tickets for the audience,” said a senior minister who requested to remain anonymous.

“It was informed the state that BCCI will have no problem if there won’t be any sale of tickets for IPL matches as majority of the total revenue of IPL tournament comes from other sources such as live telecast on TV channels, websites and advertisement, which will help them survive this year. Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar informed the state cabinet about this after which the decision was taken,” said another minister.

The IPL tournament will start from March 29 where the defending champion Mumbai Indians will take on Chennai Super Kings at Mumbai’s Wankhade Stadium.