The 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has been suspended after a spate of positive Covid-19 tests in the last few days, as confirmed by BCCI Vice-President Rajeev Shukla to a news agency.
The decision came shortly after Sunrisers Hyderabad’s (SRH) Wriddhiman Saha and Delhi Capitals’ (DC) Amit Mishra tested Covid-19 positive. SRH were supposed to play Mumbai Indians in the evening.
IPL suspended for this season: Vice-President BCCI Rajeev Shukla to ANI#COVID19 pic.twitter.com/K6VBK0W0WA
— ANI (@ANI) May 4, 2021
On Monday, 3 May, the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), slated to take place in Ahmedabad, was rescheduled after Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier of Kolkata tested positive.
Further, Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) bowling coach L Balaji, along with the team driver, also returned positive for the COVID-19.
Earlier, the tournament saw numerous withdrawals by overseas player. RCB’s Kane Richardson and Adam Zampa returned back to their native country. Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) Liam Livingstone too withdrew his name from IPL 2021, citing ‘bubble fatigue accumulated over the past year’ as the primary reason.
However, the most notable absentee was R Ashwin, who decided to pull out after playing few matches to be with his family in such testing times.
With almost 20 million Covid-19 cases so far, India is among the worst-hit nations by the pandemic.