IPL 2021 | Eight groundsmen at Wankhede Stadium test COVID positive

In what comes as a blow for the IPL, eight groundstaff members at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai returned a positive result for the novel Coronavirus. As per the Hindu, 19 groundstaff members had undergone RT-PCR tests over the last week. Five people tested positive on April 1 while three were confirmed to be positive during the March 26 COVID Tests. The Mumbai Cricket Association is expected to fill in the groundstaff from other facilities, Sharad Pawar Academy at Bandra-Kurla Complex and Sachin Tendulkar Gymkhana at Kandivali. 

There was a brief period of time when the COVID cases had gone down considerably but in the last few weeks, things have gone from bad to worse as there have been increasing number of cases in the country. Maharashtra has been the worst affected with 47,827 new cases and 202 deaths reported on April 2. There were 8,844 new cases and 19 deaths recorded in Mumbai, on Friday, which is set to host 10 league games from April 10 to 25, to be played behind the doors without crowd. 

Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, on Saturday, warned that the government will be taking a decision soon and is also considering a lockdown and imposing stricter restrictions in the city and the state. This might well force the BCCI to rethink on its decision to host IPL in Mumbai.