If IPL Did Start Up Again, I Doubt It Would Be In India Again - James Neesham

James Neesham, the New Zealand and Mumbai Indians all-rounder, opines that the remaining matches of the truncated IPL 2021 are unlikely to happen in India again.

The 14th edition of the cash-rich league was suspended last week after 29 matches being played out following the covid-19 outbreak in 4 franchises, and all the players were sent back to their homes. India is amidst an unprecedented health crisis as the country is recording over 400,000 cases per day, and thousands of patients are dying due to the lack of health resources in beds and oxygens.

James Neesham, who is currently in quarantine in New Zealand, reckons not just the IPL, but the T20 World Cup, which is originally scheduled to happen in India, will not be hosted by the Asian giants. There have been talks of shifting the T20 World Cup to the UAE.

“If it did start up again, I doubt the IPL would be in India again. I think we’ve already seen plans for the T20 World Cup to move out of India later in the year and they’re going to be ultra-cautious about that sort of thing,” James Neesham told Newshub.

We obviously don’t know yet exactly how teams were infiltrated: James Neesham

The tournament was postponed on Tuesday after 6 covid cases, among players and staff, were recorded in 4 franchises, following which a couple of more cases were announced.

James Neesham, who featured in a solitary game for Mumbai Indians, feels that the players may have contracted the virus while flying via air, from the first two cities – Chennai and Mumbai – where the tournament was held to Delhi and Ahmedabad, which was hosting the second phase of the caravan style season before it was paused.

“Even though we were flying on chartered planes, we have to go through customs, hand your details over to people, walk through terminals, so there were always going to be pinch-points there.

“We obviously don’t know yet exactly how teams were infiltrated, but… it’s such a difficult prospect to keep everything perfect and when you’ve got so many guys that are close to each other, there are going to be social interactions after games.

Once one team has it, you start looking back through your last week at who you talked to and who you shook hands with. It certainly gets your mind racing,” the 30-year-old Kiwi stated.

Also Read: IPL 2021: Aakash Chopra Names Six Uncapped Indian Players Impressing Him The Most