Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar has urged the BCCI and PCB to not stage the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Pakistan Super League (PSL) due to the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis in the region.
"BCCI & PCB should both rethink if this is a good time to continue the IPL or restart the PSL. Things are tough. All resources should go towards helping people in these devastating times," tweeted Akhtar along with a link of his YouTube video.
According to Shoaib, IPL needs to be postponed or should only go ahead if SOPs can be implemented strictly.
“India is burning, IPL must stop,” he said in the video, explaining that he was not saying this because the PSL was stopped last month.
“I also want PSL to not happen this year in June. If pandemic is spreading then PSL should not happen in June,” he suggested.
Akhtar feels IPL is not important and the money being used on it should be utilized to save the lives of people.
“We do not want cricket, we do not want heroes, we do not want entertainment at this time. We right now want people to be saved in India and Pakistan,” appealed the ex-pacer, who had represented Kolkata Knight Riders in the inaugural edition of IPL.
Akhtar wants the Pakistan government to impose curfew as it was a matter of life and death.
“I strongly appeal to the government to impose a curfew and not a lockdown as we do not follow SOPs. I want the army to come and make people follow the SOP’s strictly,” he said.
The former Pakistan cricketer rued that there is no way Pakistanis could help India financially.
“How do we send money to India? I cannot understand how we send money to India. This is not a problem of Hindu and Muslim, Christian and Sikh. Its all our problem,” said Akhtar.
