0:
Amid the rising cases of COVID-19 in the country and the potential unavailability of players due to travel restrictions, a major T20 League has been postponed. Already, the T20 World Cup in Australia, originally scheduled in 2020, was deferred till 2022. While T20 World Cup which is currently scheduled to be played in India in October-November, could also be moved out from India due to the pandemic.
In a recent development, the third edition of the T20 Mumbai League has been officially deferred. Despite getting the permission from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to conduct the T20 Mumbai tournament immediately after the ongoing IPL, the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) has decided to defer their franchise-based T20 competition indefinitely keeping in the mind the COVID-situation in the city.
"In view of the current COVID-19 pandemic situation in the country and keeping in mind the safety and interests of all the stakeholders involved, the Mumbai Cricket Association has decided to defer the conduct of 3rd edition of the T20 Mumbai League till further notice," officials MCA President Vijay Patil and Chairman-Governing Council T20 Mumbai League Milind Narvekar said in a joint statement.
Notably, the tournament was earlier scheduled to happen from the first week of June.
Other state cricket associations also receive nods from BCCI
"When so many people in the country are affected due to the pandemic, there's scarcity of oxygen and vaccines are going out of stock everywhere, it is not prudent to hold a meeting for organising a cricket tournament in such times. So, on humanitarian grounds, we have decided to defer the tournament till situation comes back to normalcy," Narvekar was further quoted as saying in a Mid-Day Report.
ALSO READ: ICC T20 World Cup to be moved out of India
Like Mumbai, other state cricket associations like Tamil Nadu, Saurashtra and Karnataka have also been received the nod by the BCCI to conduct their intra-state T20 tournament.