Mamata Banerjee seems to be unhappy about the cancellation of third ODI between India and South Africa, which was to be held at the Eden Gardens on 18 March. Due to the coronavirus threat, the BCCI was forced to take the decision of cancelling the match. Banerjee isn’t quite pleased with BCCI President Sourav Ganguly as she says no one from the board informed her government about the move.
Mamata’s comment came on a day when the state Assembly speaker Biman Banerjee announced that Bengal too would restrict visitors’ entry to the state.
“Everything was all right with Sourav. But they should have told us a word, nothing else. When the match was scheduled to be held in Kolkata, at least the Kolkata Police should have been informed. I am saying with due respect. Why would not the state chief secretary or home secretary or police commissioner or someone else in the government be informed? How is that if you inform us after taking a decision? We are not asking you to stop the match. But what would you have done had you been in this situation?” Mamata was quoted as saying by DNA.
This hiatus of sports events has been a bolt from the blue. Due to coronavirus, most of the sporting events have been put on hold or cancelled. The Indian Premier League (IPL) was expected to get underway from 29 March. However, the COVID-19 menace forced BCCI to postpone the tournament until 15 April. It’s also been speculated that the tournament could be cancelled altogether.
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