A day after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) called off the India versus South Africa One Day International series and postponed the upcoming season of the much-awaited cash-rich tournament Indian Premier League due to the coronavirus outbreak in the country, Indian captain Virat Kohli urged everyone to stay safe and vigilant during these hard times.
“Let’s stay strong and fight the #COVID19 outbreak by taking all precautionary measures. Stay safe, be vigilant and most importantly remember, prevention is better than cure. Please take care everyone,” Virat Kohli tweeted.
Let's stay strong and fight the #COVID19 outbreak by taking all precautionary measures. Stay safe, be vigilant and most importantly remember, prevention is better than cure. Please take care everyone.
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) March 14, 2020
On the other hand, the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Friday said that their priority is people’s safety after the board pushed back the start of this year’s IPL from March 29 to April 15 amidst the dangerous the COVID-19 pandemic around the world.
“Let’s stick to the postponement (at the moment). The first priority is safety, so we postponed the games,” Sourav Ganguly said in his first reaction when he was asked about the push back of IPL.
However, he said that there is nothing yet decided if there will be more double-headers if the tournament takes place from April 15. However, this will be discussed later as no one has a choice right now – be it the BCCI or the IPL franchises.
On the other hand, a senior BCCI official has said that only the start date of IPL has been delayed and the window remains the same for the much-anticipated tournament. So far, 80 positive cases have been reported in India with the global infected count standing at more than 1,30,000 which is increasing day by day. The death count because of the coronavirus outbreak has gone beyond 5,000 internationally as well.
COVID-19 has also affected the cricket series across the globe. The ongoing series between Australia and New Zealand got cancelled after the New Zealand government tightened its restrictions amidst of the novel coronavirus. Along with this, the three-match T20I series between Australia and the Kiwis in New Zealand starting March 24 in Dunedin has also been cancelled for the time being. Even the England and South Africa have called off their tours of Sri Lanka and India respectively as of now.
