IPL 2021 will resume from where we left off: Brijesh Patel

Bengaluru, May 5: Though the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 has been suspended indefinitely after many players contracted the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is ready to host the remaining matches of the tournament sometime later exactly from where it left off.

The BCCI was forced to postpone IPL 2021 midway through the tournament after multiple cases of COVID-19 among players and support staff emerged from Ahmedabad and New Delhi in the past couple of days.

The 52-day 60-match tournament would have concluded in Ahmedabad on May 30. However, only 24 days of cricket was possible with 29 completed games before the virus halted proceedings.

Though there is no clarity as to when the 14th edition of the tournament will resume, IPL Chairman Brijesh Patel said he was confident of the tournament resuming from where it has been stopped.

"The remaining 31 matches will be completed whenever we can. So, matches will resume from where we left this year," Patel, the former India Test batsman told news18.com in an exclusive interview.

Though Patel did not mention the exact dates, he hinted that IPL could resume before or after the ICC T20 World Cup scheduled to be held in October.

"We've to look at a window, before the ICC T20 World Cup or after the World Cup," added Patel, while also making it clear that that BCCI will find a safe way to send IPL's foreign recruits back to their respective countries.

"We need to send them home and we'll find a way to do that," Brijesh told PTI news agency when asked how will the foreigners return home.

The IPL had 14 Australian players left, after three pullouts a few days ago, along with 10 from New Zealand and 11 Englishmen.

South Africa had 11 players in the league, which also featured nine West Indians, three Afghans and two from Bangladesh.

India and New Zealand players were supposed to travel together in a charter flight to the UK where they will clash in the World Test Championship final in June.