Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
The ongoing season of IPL keeps on getting new challenges everyday but BCCI have dealt with all of them to ensure that the tournament don't get affected. Despite the rising cases of COVID-19 in the country, the cricket governing body has ensured full safety to the people involved in the conduct of the mega-event. They have been highly successful so far as there has not been a single case of bio-bubble breach. However, the overseas players have started to pull out and have decided to go back home.
Two new additions in list of people pulling out of IPL 2021
The list of people backing out of the tournament due to the pandemic keeps on increasing everyday. After players like Mitchell Marsh, Josh Hazlewood, Liam Livingstone, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson opted out, there have been two new additions to the list. Much to the surprise, two of the best umpires in IPL 2021 have decided to opt out.
Reason behind their decision
Reflecting on the decision of the umpires to pull out from IPL 2021, a BCCI official told Indian Express, "Nitin has a small child to look after as his mother and wife have tested positive while Reiffel informed BCCI that he fears not being able to go home due to the Australian government’s decision banning all flights from India. The BCCI already had several local umpires as back-up so they will be officiating in games in which Menon and Reiffel were scheduled to stand.”
Notably, both Menon and Reiffel are a part of ICC’s Elite Panel of Umpires and their absence might hamper the quality of officiating in the upcoming games. Meanwhile, it will provide an opportunity to some of the young Indian umpires to step up and officiate in the biggest T20 tournament.