Kolkata Knight Riders batsman Rahul Tripathi has been penalised by the police for allegedly violating Covid-19 lockdown norms as per a report in The Indian Express. Tripathi was reportedly moving around without a mask in Pune’s Kondhwa area.
“The cricketer Tripathi was not wearing a face mask and was driving around without any reason during the lockdown. There were some other persons in the car,” said senior inspector Sardar Patil of Kondhwa police station.
The right-handed batsman was fined Rs. 500 and was also issued a receipt.
Tripathi had scored 187 runs in 7 matches for KKR in the IPL 2021 before the tournament was suspended due to a rise in Covid-19 cases within the franchises. In fact, KKR’s Varun Chakravarthy, Tim Seifert and Sandeep Warrior had also tested positive for the disease.
The cash-rich league was put to a halt on May 4 with immediate effect and for an indefinite period but the BCCI is now planning to resume it in September while the final would be played around October 10. The board though has cleared that the remainder of the tournament won’t take place in India.
BCCI officially made the announcement on Saturday (May 29, 2021) that the remainder of the IPL 2021 will take place in the UAE.
Apart from the three KKR players, DC’s Amit Mishra, SRH’s Wriddhiman Saha and CSK’s bowling coach Lakshmipathy Balaji and batting coach Mike Hussey had also tested positive.