Advise against conducting IPL: MEA

New Delhi : The External Affairs Ministry on Thursday advised against holding this year's IPL edition in wake of the coronavirus scare, but left it to the organisers to take a final call on it.

This was stated by MEA Additional Secretary Dammu Ravi who has been appointed as the nodal officer to coordinate efforts to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

Responding to questions about IPL and other sporting events, Ravi said the government's advice would be "not do it at this time but if the organisers want to go ahead, it is their decision".

"We are assessing a lot of requests of this nature of sports events that have been held in India and some thing related to mega event already being planned.

It is for the organisers to decide if they want to go ahead with it or not," Ravi said during a press briefing.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said on holding IPL in India, the comments were general observations on holding large sporting events in India.

"Our view is that this is a decision to be taken by the organisers. No specific recommendations have been sought or made by MEA regarding hosting IPL or any other sporting event in India," he said.