New Delhi: The 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 has been suspended after two more Covid-19 positive cases — Wriddhiman Saha of Sunrisers Hyderabad and Amit Mishra of Delhi Capitals — emerged on Tuesday. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will reschedule the remaining games of the T20 league at a later time.Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) players, Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier had returned positive Covid-19 reports on Monday. The development saw the BCCI suspend the game between KKR and Royal Challengers Bangalore while L Balaji’s covid-positive case forced the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) squad into quarantine too.
Yesterday, BCCI official had confirmed that the virus case in the CSK camp forced the organisers to reschedule Wednesday’s game between Chennai and Rajasthan Royals too. Only hours later, Saha and Mishra’s reports also turned out to be positive, forcing the board to suspend the league indefinitely.
The T20 league had been on thin ice over the past week or so. After a number of overseas players — Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa, Liam Livingstone and Andrew Tye — decided to withdraw from the league citing Covid risk and the threat of being locked out of their own countries due to travel restrictions, a number of other players had also expressed apprehensions.
The BCCI had then released a statement assuring the foreign players of safe return home after the completion of the league. Things, however, soon went out of control with a number of players testing positive for the virus, suggesting multiple incidents of a breach.