Rising COVID cases: Yesterday, it was reported that two teams returned confirmed COVID-19 positive cases among players and staff. Two players and three staff members from two teams returned COVID-19 positive cases forcing yesterday’s match to be postponed. Chennai Super Kings went into a week-long quarantine to contain the situation.
UPDATE: The Indian Premier League Governing Council (IPL GC) and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in an emergency meeting has unanimously decided to postpone IPL 2021 season with immediate effect.
Details – https://t.co/OgYXPj9FQy pic.twitter.com/lYmjBId8gL
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 4, 2021
Today, two players from the Sunrisers Hyderabad have also returned positive tests. This makes it the third franchise to return positive tests.
BREAKING: Sunrisers Hyderabad's Wriddhiman Saha has tested positive for Covid-19 #IPL2021
More to follow… pic.twitter.com/hAqNc6o2JQ
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) May 4, 2021
The Decision: After a lot of back and forth in the morning about how the situation can be mitigated, the IPL has released a statement to suspend the season indefinitely with respect to the COVID-19 situation.
'The BCCI does not want to compromise on the safety of the players, support staff and the other participants involved in organising the IPL' #IPL2021
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) May 4, 2021
IPL Chairman Brijesh Patel said the decision was taken keeping in mind safety of all stakeholders.
Comparison to PSL: In March, the PSL ended in a similar fashion after the bio secure bubble was breached. The implosion of cases during a peak pandemic affecting a sports league happened for the second time this cricket season. Questions will also be raised if conducting the PSL in June will be safe or not.
PSL 2021, which was suspended due to Covid-19 cases earlier this month, is set to resume in June after the franchises came to an agreement. pic.twitter.com qc6eZ05p2
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) March 11, 2021
India’s situation: A week long debate was going on to assess if the IPL is morally okay to conduct in current circumstances or not. However, the surge of cases among players proves how dire the circumstances are. Even top of the line bio-secure bubble arrangements could not keep players safe.
Another absolutely harrowing piece about the scale of the humanitarian crisis that covid is inflicting on India right now, via @clarissaward pic.twitter.com/iVfjUOakWN
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 3, 2021