IPL 2021 was suspended due to Covid outbreak in India, but was resumed in UAE later.
The IPL 2021 was suspended by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) five years ago in early May due to an increase in Covid-19 cases within team bubbles. By then, 29 matches had been played when the second wave of the pandemic was on the rise in India.
After two KKR players, including Varun, tested positive for Covid-19, the 30th match between the Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Ahmedabad had to be postponed. Sandeep Warrier was the other KKR player to test positive for Covid-19.
Varun may have been exposed to the virus when he left the biosecure bubble through the official green route to get scans for a shoulder issue, according to reports at the time.
“The worst was when IPL was stopped in 2021. It got stopped halfway because I got Covid. I was the first person to test positive. So, the whole IPL had stopped. There were people abusing me. Back then, IPL was the only way people were passing the time. They were so angry that it was stopped. People were saying, ‘Why don’t you just die.’ It was that bad,” Varun recalled the harrowing time on Sahiba Bali’s YouTube show, Journey to Jersey.
The Covid-19 outbreak quickly spread in the IPL bubble, with three members of the Chennai Super Kings camp—including bowling coach Lakshmipathy Balaji and CEO Kasi Viswanathan—testing positive.
The BCCI had to suspend the IPL 2021 due to the worsening situation, but it later resumed the remaining games in the United Arab Emirates from September 19 to October 15.