India’s financial capital Mumbai faced the wrath of the cyclone Tauktae on Monday. The city is already under lockdown with several cases of coronavirus are being reported daily. This storm was salt to the life of already-suffering people. Winds were blowing at a heavy pace around the city. Wankhede Stadium also got a taste of this cyclone’s might where a 16-feet tall sightscreen fell down.
A source in the Mumbai Cricket Association revealed to TOI of damage ground suffered during Cyclone Tauktae. He also mentioned it wasn’t the first time that such a thing happened. Another similar incident occurred during the 2011 World Cup as well.
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TOI quoted the MCA source saying “The sightscreen towards the famous North Stand at Wankhede Stadium fell, as a result of the gusts of wind today. It had last fallen during the 2011 World Cup too. It’s not a big deal, we will use ropes and all to erect it again.”
Wankhede Stadium hosted several matches in the recently postponed Indian Premier League 2021. The league began in Chennai and Mumbai initially before moving to Ahmedabad and Delhi. When the coronavirus breached into the bio-bubble environment, the board was considering shifting the whole IPL to Mumbai, where managing a single bubble would have been easy.
The sight screen below the press box (North Stand) at the Wankhede Stadium is completely damanged by the strong winds. #CycloneTauktae pic.twitter.com/GBMtdnSHzP
— Harit Joshi (@Haritjoshi) May 17, 2021
However, few more positive cases came from other camps as well and forced the board to take a final call on the league. BCCI suspended the remaining 31 games of the season indefinitely and made arrangements to send players to their countries.
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Now, the board is considering neutral venues for the remaining part of the IPL 2021. Sri Lanka and England threw their hat in the ring along with the UAE, who hosted last year’s complete season successfully. It will be interesting to see which country will get the opportunity to host the cash-rich league.
