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This cancellation will inflict a multi million pound loss on the Lancashire Cricket Club. A bit unfair really as we are talking multi million dollar profits for the franchises going ahead with their IPL tournament. This was all about the money and not Covid which has cheapened the game in many ways.
I think many cricketing fans around the world were openly looking forward to the fifth and Final test between England and India that was meant to start last Friday. Due to a support staff member coming down with Covid the match was called off. That doesn't seem that fishy until you start looking at the calendar.
I think this is highly convenient considering the outcome of the owners meeting for the IPL franchises held two days before the match was due to start. At that meeting the owners agreed that the teams participating had to arrive in Dubai and spend 6 days in quarantine before they could play.
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Lets look at the facts as this sounds crazy considering the first game starts on the 19th which is this Sunday with the CSK playing the Mumbai Indians. On the 20th KKR would play the RCB and 21st PBKS would play RR. basically this means all players involved in those matches would need to be in Dubai by the 12th to make the first game.
The Test match that was cancelled was due to start on Friday 10th so if we add 5 days onto that date plus travel time from the UK to Dubai which is roughly 8 hours the Indian cricket team would land in Dubai sometime on the 15th. Now we add 5 days onto that date and the players would be clear to participate on the 22nd.
We all know how much money is generated by the IPL and this is shocking that this was allowed to happen in this way. Some people mentioned it was also to rest the players due to fatigue, but that is not the case it is all about the star players missing their opening matches.
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The Indian team players participating in the IPL arrived in Dubai today which of course they would and was never in doubt.
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The players must be smiling under their masks as they think they have pulled off the biggest con, but the truth always comes out.
It would have been far better to not make this so obvious and maybe recommend only 3 days quarantine or move the games back by 1 week instead. What the BCCI (Indian Cricket Board) has allowed to happen is seriously wrong ad there should be repercussions.
To be honest I never thought anything of this until I heard about the 6 day quarantine period and it makes perfect sense now. Money always wins and the IPL has to have it's star players involved.
For me these actions have cheapened what the Indian cricket team had done on their tour up until now and shows how corrupt the entire system is. Someone had to be paid off or it was agreed behind closed doors that this was the best way to get out of a sticky situation. The owners of the IPL franchises created this by agreeing the 6 day period without consulting a calendar first. Surely there has to be some sort of punishment dished out for this type of behavior or sanctions imposed as this is not very sporting what has happened here.