BREAKING NEWS: The IPL cricket tournament is suspended INDEFINITELY after a third team was affected by a positive Covid-19 case and bio-secure bubble was breached in two cities
The Indian Premier League has been suspended indefinitely after a third team was affected by a Covid-19 outbreak.
The Indian Premier League has been rocked by another Covid-19 outbreak after Sunrisers Hyderabad wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha returned a positive test.
They are the third team to be affected in the space of a few days after the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Chennai Super Kings.
With the Covid bio-bubble now breached in both Ahmedabad and Delhi, two of the venues currently hosting the Twenty20 tournament, the organisers are reportedly considering shifting it to Mumbai.
It comes as India struggles to cope with the Covid-19 crisis as cases soared past 20 million and deaths approached 220,000 with the health system on the verge of collapse.
Wriddhiman Saha of Sunrisers Hyderabad is the latest IPL player to test positive for Covid-19
The 36-year-old wicketkeeper batsman returned a positive ahead of their game on Tuesday
Saha, 36, returned a positive test on Tuesday ahead of the Sunrisers’ match against the Mumbai Indians at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.
It follows the postponement of Monday’s game between the Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Ahmedabad after two Knight Riders players, Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier tested positive.
They are believed to have been exposed to the virus, which is rampant across India, after leaving the bio-secure bubble to go to hospital for injury scans through the IPL’s ‘green channel’.
The crisis then deepened when a second team, the Super Kings, was hit by three positive tests. Chennai’s chief executive Kasi Viswanathan, bowling coach L Bulaji and a cleaner inside their bubble had all tested positive.
The Super Kings’ fixture against Rajasthan Royals scheduled for Wednesday has been postponed as a result.
With Hyderabad the latest team to be affected, calls to cancel the lucrative tournament will only intensify.
But, according to Cricinfo, the BCCI are planning to relocate all the matches to Mumbai as early as this weekend.
New cases of Covid-19 are currently lower in Mumbai than in Delhi and other cities across the country.
More to follow