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'Best decision given the circumstances': Punjab Kings co-owner Ness Wadia lauds BCCI's decision to suspend IPL 2021
Punjab Kings co-owner Ness Wadia came out in support of BCCI on Tuesday by backing the board's decision to suspend IPL 2021 in India amid the raging Covid-19 pandemic.
Punjab Kings co-owner Ness Wadia came out in support of BCCI on Tuesday by backing the board's decision to suspend IPL 2021 in India amid the raging Covid-19 pandemic. He stated that it was the 'right call' and that the situation deteriorated quickly.
The Indian Premier League Governing Council (IPL GC) and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday suspended the IPL 2021 indefinitely after numerous players and members of various franchises test positive for Covid-19 in the last couple of days. Speaking to PTI, Wadia also said that he welcomes the governing body's decision to defer the league for the time being.
"Best decision has been taken given the circumstances. Lot of people are suffering in India," said Wadia.
"As far as hosting the event was concerned at the first place, he said, "Due diligence was done before the IPL but no one is perfect. The right call was taken to hold it in India ahead of the World Cup it is just unfortunate that the situation deteriorated so quickly."
The tournament suffered a huge setback on Monday when match 30 between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore was postponed after two KKR players, Sandeep Warrier and Varun Chakravarthy, tested positive. Soon after, three Chennai Super Kings franchise members also tested positive, including L Balaji. The final nail in the coffin proved to be Wriddhiman Saha (of Sunrisers Hyderabad) and Amit Mishra (of Delhi Capitals) testing positive for coronavirus.
Wadia also said holding the league in UAE, which hosted IPL 2021 due to the pandemic back home, would not make any difference. "I don't think this has got anything to do in a specific country (India or UAE) would have made a difference. Everyone tried their best sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't," Wadia pointed out.
When asked about his thoughts on the criticism IPL 2021 received from Australian players such as Adam Zampa and Andrew Tye, who decided to opt-out mid-way through the tournament, Wadia remarked that the situation was very different when the tournament started.
"With due respect to the international cricketers including Zampa, the situation was very different a month ago. They should study the fact that cases were very less when we started before commenting on it.
"It happened during the Australia Open they shut the city down when it was happening. People didn't complain then, why now," Wadia asked.
He also lauded the Indian players saying: "Hats off to the Indian players who have been playing non-stop in bubbles and not complained unlike some of the foreign players.
