Right decision: Williamson on IPL’s COVID-forced suspension

Southampton, May 21 (PTI): New Zealand captain Kane Williamson has acknowledged that “clearly there were some breaches” in the IPL’s bio-bubble and suspending the league was the “right decision” given India’s “heartbreaking” COVID-19 crisis.
The IPL was indefinitely postponed on May 4 after multiple COVID-19 cases inside the bio-bubble, including one in SunRisers Hyderabad, the franchise Williamson was leading.
“Things escalated really quickly over in India and the challenges that way in that part of the world are heartbreaking to see,” Williamson told reporters during an interaction on Wednesday from his quarantine base in Southampton ahead of a Test series against England. “From suppose us playing in a bubble with a face, you know clearly it became too great. We were very well looked after in the bubble for the first half of the tournament, when things were still intact but clearly there were some breaches,” he conceded but didn’t elaborate.
“The tournament couldn’t continue and the right decisions were made, I believe that’s how things unfolded in the IPL,” the soft-spoken batsman added. At the time of IPL’s suspension, India was in the grip of a deadly second wave of the pandemic and was recording over 3 lakh daily cases and thousands of deaths along with that.
Williamson said the last few weeks have been interesting during which the IPL’s New Zealand contingent along with a host of Australians had to fly to Maldives, and stay in quarantine for 13 days before being allowed in the United Kingdom.
They will play a two-Test series against England before the big World Test Championship final against India at the Ageas Bowl from June 18-22.
“Things were okay, we were tracking for most part of the IPL before there was a quick escalation obviously of COVID-19.
“(It was) so tragic and obviously such challenging times for them as a country and bubble breach in cricketing circle and things happened quite quickly after that for us I suppose.”