New Delhi: The decision to indefinitely suspend the 2021’s edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after COVID-19 cases were detected in different teams’ bio bubbles was taken on a ten-minute call by the BCCI, reports said.
In an online meeting of the IPL governing council, BCCI secretary Jay Shah told attendees that it was untenable to carry on because of the breach in the IPL bio-bubble. He told the council members that the only option was to postpone the tournament, considering the safety of the players.
The call lasted only ten minutes, Indian Express said in a report.
As COVID-19 cases were detected in players and non-playing staff of different teams, the tournament had to be called off midway, after 29 games, and 31 left to be conducted.
Players that have been already infected are from Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals on Tuesday to go with those in Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings the previous day.
“We have no other choice other than postponing the tournament as more cases were detected in the past few days. We had kept all precautions and protocols in place but the virus still sneaked in. We had a discussion and we all felt that it’s the right time to postpone the tournament, BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla told the media.
An official from BCCI also mentioned calling off the tournament now to be a good idea as players would have had to travel to cities like Bangalore and Kolkata next, where COVID-19 cases are seen the most in numbers.
Just last week, after three Australian players decided to go back home for which BCCI interim CEO Amin had assured everyone that the biobubble for IPL 2021 was safe. However, things have changed since.