Australia pull out, Bangladesh and England join Road Safety World Series T20 tournament

The remaining matches of the inaugural season of the Road Safety World Series T20 tournament will be played in Raipur between March 2 and 21 with an extra team in the form of England Legends, while Bangladesh Legends have been roped in to replace Australia Legends, who have pulled out because of Covid-19-related travel restrictions.

The first edition of the tournament, started early last year in Mumbai, had to be aborted after just four games on March 11, not long before the whole of India went into lockdown because of the Covid-19 outbreak. The remainder of the matches, with a tweaked schedule because of the additional team, will now be played at the new 65,000-capacity Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium.

The T20 tournament is an initiative by Road Safety Cell of Maharashtra in association with Professional Management Group - Sunil Gavaskar is the commissioner of the series, while Sachin Tendulkar is its brand ambassador.

"It gives me immense pleasure to welcome the England Legends and the Bangladesh Legends to the Unacademy Road Safety World Series," Ravi Gaikwad, the founder of the competition, said in a press statement. "Their participation will add to the competitive spirit of this exciting series.

"The importance of this series has gained further relevance given the fact that the number of deaths due to road accidents haven't lessened even during the pandemic. We all need to carry on with our efforts to create maximum awareness towards road safety and save as many lives as possible on Indian roads."