Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar recently backed the BCCI that they have taken the right decision to postponed the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. The IPL will be pushed back until April 15 which was earlier decided to begin from March 29. Moreover, the visas have been cancelled too. He also said that the future of IPL can be decided on how quickly the spread of coronavirus can be controlled here.

“The decision by the BCCI to suspend the IPL till April 15 is a laudable one. The health and safety of a nation are more important than sport and it’s wonderful that the usually much-maligned BCCI has put that before anything else,” Sunil Gavaskar wrote in a column for Sportstar.

“Whether the IPL will be played at all depends on how quickly the spread of COVID-19 is controlled. Till April 15 overseas players won’t get a visa so it may take a bit longer for the tournament to take off. Foreign players bring a different flavour to the tournament and add to the excitement, so it’s important to have them,” he said.

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He also lashed out at a BCCI official who said that they did not want IPL to be like a Mushtaq Ali tournament where the foreign players don’t participate.

“Having said that, for a so-called top BCCI official to comment that “the BCCI has to ensure the quality of the game is not poor. We did not want a Mushtaq Ali tournament,” is an incredibly insensitive statement if indeed it is true,” wrote Gavaskar.

“Firstly, it’s insulting to the great man after whom the tournament is named and secondly begs the question that if it’s such a “poor” tournament, then why have it at all? Also, can light be shed on why the quality of the tournament is poor? Surely it’s not simply because there are no international players in it, but also because there are no Indian internationals in it! That is a scheduling issue that the BCCI has to look at,” Sunil Gavaskar further added.