IPL 2021 will happen: BCCI vice president Rajeev Shukla clarifies tournament is postponed not cancelled

master

May 5, 2021

KEY STORY

Days after the COVID-19 surge managed to burst the bio-bubbles of the India Premier League (IPL) during the 14th season, the tournament’s governing council and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed the suspension of the cash-rich league on Tuesday.
The IPL 2021 was suspended indefinitely after several star players contracted COVID-19 despite staying inside their respective franchise bio-bubbles.
Taking a stock of the things post the indefinite suspension of the IPL 2021, BCCI vice president Rajeev Shukla has clarified that the tournament is postponed not cancelled.
Speaking about the postponement of the tournament amid the second wave of COVID-19 across India, Shukla said that the franchises and organisers of the elite league are looking after their players during testing times. The BCCI vice president revealed that there are not many cases and only one or two franchises are affected by the COVID-19 surge.
“I want to make it clear that IPL 2021 has been not cancelled. It has been suspended, it has been postponed, it has been deferred, so it will happen. The remaining part of this year’s IPL will happen. But in due course, when the covid situation improves, a decision will be taken about it,” Shukla added.
A day before the twin COVID-19 positive cases were reported inside the IPL bio-bubble, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bowlers Sandeep Warrier and Varun Chakravarthy had contracted the deadly disease. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) bowling coach L Balaji and batting coach Michael Hussey have also tested positive for novel coronavirus.

CONCLUSION

“They are scared, situation in India is bad. Few players wanted to leave the country. They had spoken to their franchisees and the franchisees also confided with us. But not many players were willing to leave the country,” the BCCI vice president added.
Shukla asserted that BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, secretary Jay Shah, and the IPL Governing Council took the call to suspend the 14ths season over a video conference due to the surge in the coronavirus cases.