IPL 2021 Suspended: Alarm Bells Started Going Off For All Of Us - Chris Morris Speaks About The Chaotic Time When Early COVID-19 Cases Emerged

Rajasthan Royals all-rounder Chris Morris reveals the mood in the dressing room when the news of two Kolkata Knight Riders players – Varun Chakravarthy and  Sandeep Warrier – testing positive for the covid-19 broke out.

After the two KKR players, 2 persons from the Chennai Super Kings camp also tested positive, followed by Wriddhiman Saha of Sunrisers Hyderabad and Amit Mishra of Delhi Capitals as well. On Tuesday, the BCCI suspended the IPL 2021 and later almost all other overseas players have left India.

Chris Morris, who has reached South Africa and is currently undergoing a 10-day mandatory quarantine at home, opened up about the chaotic panic in the dressing room as the bio-bubble was breached.

“Look, obviously I’m relieved. The moment we heard that, when players are testing positive, inside the bubble, then everyone starts asking questions. The alarm bells definitely started going off for all of us. By Monday when they postponed that game (between Kolkata and Royal Challengers Bangalore), we knew the tournament was under pressure to continue,” Chris Morris, told iol.co.za.

“I was chatting to our team doctor, whose room was across the hallway from my mine in the hotel, and Kumar (Sangakarra, the Royals’ head coach) came around the corner, and drew his finger across his throat, and then we knew it was over.

“And then it was chaos! The England guys especially were panicking because they needed to isolate in hotels in England first, and apparently there weren’t any rooms,” he revealed.

This was always a two-fold thing: Chris Morris

Chris Morris, who was brilliant with the ball for the Royals picking up 14 wickets in the truncated season, said it “always a two-fold thing” about the continuation of the IPL notwithstanding the worsening situation of covid in India.

While the Protea all-rounder acknowledged that remained in a much safer environment in the bio-bubble as India grappled with the second wave of the virus leading to over 300,000 cases per day for the last 10 days. At the same time, the 34-year-old reckons the IPL provided a happy distraction for a few hours and kept people glued inside their homes.

“For me, this was always a two-fold thing; on the one hand we’re playing a tournament, all happy and smiling in a bubble, while outside so many people are suffering.

“On the flip side of it, there was the fact that by playing, we were ensuring people actually stayed at home, watched us and at least had something to smile about or something else to think about – even if it was being unhappy with how we played in a game – for three hours each night,” Morris stated.

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