Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said on Wednesday that the Indian Premier League (IPL) should happen behind locked doors or it should be delayed after 10 positive coronavirus cases reported in the state. The final decision will be made on Thursday at the Maharastra Assembly.
“In the current situation, it is not possible to schedule the IPL match in a packed stadium. We want it to happen in closed doors or postpone it later. The final decision will be taken in the assembly session tomorrow. We all are of the view that IPL should not take place at this time. It is very dangerous to conduct the IPL in this situation,” Tope told reporters.
Indian Premier League’s (IPL) 13th edition will begin on March 29, where Rohit Sharma’s defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) will take on MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Earlier today, the Central Government said the total number of COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus) cases in India has risen to 60 with 10 more people reported positive for the deadly disease.
Out of the 60 individual cases, 36 are Indian citizens. According to the ministry, six of the eight new cases come from Kerala, and one each from Rajasthan and Delhi.
The recent addition to this is 2 new cases from Mumbai that were tested positive for COVID-19 disease.
Although, BCCI’S President Sourav Ganguly had earlier said that IPL won’t be delayed or canceled in the wake of Coronavirus outbreak, instead, the precautionary measures will be mandatory for each of the franchise’s players and other staff.
Yesterday, Sunrisers Hyderabad pacer, Bhuvneshwar Kumar said that he will avoid using saliva for shinning the ball in order to keep everyone safe from the highly contagious disease.