PL 2021 has been suspended till further notice due to rising COVID-19 cases, according to Vice-President BCCI Rajeev Shukla to ANI.
Earlier today, a second Indian Premier League game was postponed after staffers with the Chennai Super Kings tested positive to the coronavirus amid a nationwide surge of cases, reports cnbctv18.com.
The cases have been on the rise as SunRisers Hyderabad's (SRH) Wriddhiman Saha also tested positive for COVID-19 today, as confirmed by the SRH Management.
The IPL has held matches without spectators every evening despite India’s stretched health system being pushed to the brink by a major wave of the pandemic.
India’s official count of coronavirus cases surpassed 20 million on Tuesday, nearly doubling in the past three months, while deaths officially have passed 220,000. Staggering as those numbers are, the true figures are believed to be far higher, the undercount an apparent reflection of the troubles in the health care system.
On Monday, the IPL moved to postpone the Knight Riders vs Royal Challengers game Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier, who both play for Kolkata, became the first players to test positive for COVID-19 inside the IPL bubble since the 2021 season started on April 9.
Australian players Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson recently flew home from the IPL amid the surge of cases in India.
Two other cricketers — Englishman Liam Livingstone, who was with Rajasthan, and Ravichandran Ashwin, who was with Delhi — also left the IPL. Livingstone cited “bubble fatigue” and Ashwin wanted to be with his family.