After a sudden rise in COVID-19 cases across the country, there were a lot of question marks on this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) which was eventually suspended indefinitely by BCCI and IPL governing council owing to positive cases in the bio-bubbles.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) received a lot of criticism from people for their shortcomings as the team bio-bubbles got breached which led to the postponement of the tournament.

BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal in his recent interview said that both the board and the IPL governing council were not prepared for the second wave of COVID-19 and that the criticism at this moment is uncalled for.

“There are people who are experts in criticizing. That is their expertise. We believe in doing the best we can. It’s a hallmark of BCCI and we tried our best. We don’t go by people’s criticism. We gave it our best shot,” Dhumal told The Indian Express.

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When asked about conducting the tournament at different venues during current times, Dhumal explained that they did a test run while the England series and conducted everything smoothly which gave them the confidence to host IPL at different venues.

“The IPL should have been played in all areas. We conducted a dummy run and planned out things. When the England series was conducted in Ahmedabad, Chennai, and Pune, the situation was far better,” he said.

“As things went so smoothly, we all were quite confident that we will be able to conduct the IPL smoothly. Who would have imagined such a situation will arise? We all thought that after what the country went through in 2020, the IPL will boost the spirit of the country,” Dhumal added.

(With The Indian Express inputs)