'It’s a national disaster': Shoaib Akhtar agrees with BCCI's decision to suspend IPL

Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar agreed to BCCI's decision to indefinitely suspend IPL 2021 looking at the current COVID situation in India. Akhtar had pointed out a few weeks ago that IPL should not be held amidst such a crisis in the country. 

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"When I said a couple of weeks ago that the IPL should be stopped this year, there were emotions behind it. And it was that there is a national catastrophe that is taking place in India. People are dying. And I made the appeal because there were 4 lakh cases being reported a day. During such times, IPL cannot take place, the pomp and show cannot take place," Akhtar said on his YouTube channel.

"I didn’t have a problem with people not making money. People have been making money since 2008. If they don’t make money for a year, what trouble will they get into? People are dying and you cannot have pomp and show. It’s a national disaster. So as a neighbour, I was requesting that the IPL should be stopped."

Akhtar also pointed out that bio-secure bubbles are not the way going forward. He pointed out the flaws of bio-bubbles during PSL and then pointed out the similar outcome during IPL. 

"IPL was never viable. We made a bio-secure bubble in the PSL and it completely flopped. India tried and the same happened there. In UAE and England, we would have had it. Over here, even people working in hotels are not safe. They don’t remain in bio-secure bubble. International cricket can take place in a bubble, but not franchise cricket because the entire world comes. The IPL is not a small event," Akhtar added.