England cricketers are likely to miss the remaining matches of the IPL 2021 which postponed indefinitely owing to spike in COVID19 cases.
England cricketers may miss IPL 2021
Earlier BCCI points that IPL may happen before or after the ICC T20 World Cup, scheduled for October-November this year.
“We’re planning on the involvement of England players in England matches,” Giles was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. “We’ve got a full FTP schedule. So if those tours to Pakistan and Bangladesh (before the T20 World Cup) are going ahead, I’d expect the players to be there.
“The New Zealand scenario was very different. Those Test matches were formalised at the end of January, by which time all those contracts and NOCs were signed for full involvement in the IPL.
“None of us knows what a rearranged IPL looks like at the moment; where it’s going to be or when. But from when we start this summer against New Zealand, our programme is incredibly busy. We’ve got a lot of important, high-profile cricket including the T20 World Cup and the Ashes. And we’re going to have to look after our players.”
Earlier, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly ruled out hosting the rest of the tournament in India.
“India is supposed to go to Sri Lanka for three ODIs and five T20Is. There are lots of organisational hazards like 14-day quarantine. It can’t happen in India. This quarantine is tough to handle. Too early to say how we can find a slot to complete the IPL,” he told Sportstar.
“You can say that now in hindsight that the IPL should have been called off earlier. Mumbai and Chennai (bio bubbles) did not have cases. Only when the IPL reached Delhi and Ahmedabad did the cases rise. People will say a lot of things in any case. The English Premier League had so many people affected. But they could reschedule the matches. But you can’t do that with IPL. You stop it for seven days and it is done. Players go back home and then the process of quarantine starts from scratch.
“…we would have continued if there were no cases. We would have completed the IPL. The players were in the bubble and there were no crowds at the venues. Players were not getting infected. Once the players got affected, we called it off. Look at leagues going around the world. They have had Covid cases, but they have continued.”
