Akhtar wants IPL, PSL to be postponed amid Covid-19 pandemic
India has recorded more than four million infections this month, dashing hopes at the start of the year that it may have seen the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Many private hospitals there have no cylinders left.
Gujrat's medical oxygen needs have soared more than 13-fold since the end of March, a senior government official said. In Rajkot, bodies were being cremated in open ground outside the city.
Many parts of the country have now tightened restrictions, with the capital in lockdown and all non-essential services banned in Maharashtra. The surge, blamed on a new virus variant and recent "super spreader" public events, brought 330,000 new infections -- a world record -- and 2,000 deaths reported in a single day.
The Indian Premier League cricket tournament is still being played, albeit behind closed doors in six Indian cities. Given the situation in India, former Pakistan bowler Shoaib Akhtar has advised the postponement of the ongoing IPL 2021 along with the remaining matches of PSL 6, which was postponed earlier due to cases reported inside the bubble.
“India is facing a devastating situation. They need to stop the IPL if it can’t continue without strict SOPs in place but otherwise, considering that India is burning, it needs to be postponed. I’m not saying this because PSL was postponed. I also think PSL shouldn’t take place in June,” said Akhtar on his official YouTube channel.
Akhtar believes that both India and Pakistan should look to save precious lives as a lot of them are at stake currently. He urges the authorities to buy oxygen tanks instead of spending that money on cricket.
“IPL is not important and the money spent on it can be better used to buy oxygen tanks. That can save people from dying. We don’t need cricket, heroes and entertainment at the moment. We want to save lives in India and Pakistan. I’m using these strong words because human lives are at stake,” he added.
The world's fastest bowler also requested the government of Pakistan to enforce curfew as the common people are hardly following any SOPs at the moment.
“Pakistan is right on the edge, there is only 10 per cent oxygen capacity left. People are not following SOPs. I request the government to enforce curfew for the last 10-15 days [of Ramadan]. There is no need to go out for Eid shopping. People need to very careful and take care of themselves,” he concluded.
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