IPL 2021: Kevin Pietersen Defends BCCI's Decision Of Keeping The Tournament Initially Amid COVID-19 Surge

Former England captain Kevin Pietersen has been amongst the many to support the BCCI’s decision to keep IPL despite the threat of the COVID-19 outbreak in India. There was widespread criticism that BCCI copped for organizing the tournament with the people battling tooth and nail for their lives. Nevertheless, Kevin Pietersen justified the call, stating it was crucial to provide a few hours of entertainment.

Throughout the tournament, cricketers kept stressing the need to remain vigilant amid the surging threat of COVID-19. The likes of Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers, Rohit Sharma, and many others emphasized maintaining all the precautions to stay safe from the disease. Unfortunately, the BCCI had to call off the tournament indefinitely due to the cluster of cases emerging within the bubble across four franchises.

Kevin Pietersen entirely supports BCCI’s decision to keep the tournament initially since the country is undergoing testing times, it was crucial to serve them a few hours of entertainment. The former England captain underlined that they were doing the job of providing some relief to the people. He praised the players for playing an exciting brand of cricket even as the pitch in Chennai was slow.

“I definitely bought into the fact that continuing the tournament initially was a positive thing for India. The country is not in a good way but I felt that providing six hours of entertainment each day was certainly a positive thing. We were doing a job for all of India, creating a show to give people some relief. I thought that the package the players were delivering was fantastic. Yes, the wickets were a little slow, certainly in Chennai, but the cricket was still very good,”

Don’t forget that the players and broadcasters are not blind to what was going on in India: Kevin Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen reminded that the players and broadcasters were aware of what was happening in the country and were keen to help out. But the 40-year old also understood BCCI’s decision of postponing the tournament indefinitely after COVID-19 positive cases emerged within the bubble.

“Don’t forget that the players and broadcasters are not blind to what was going on in India. There was an awful lot of empathy and desire to help in any way we could, which is why we were so keen to put on the show. But once players tested positive then there was going to be an awful lot of pressure on the BCCI to postpone the tournament and I do believe that they had little choice,” he added.

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