The world’s 6th-biggest sports league, Indian Premier League (IPL), has been postponed indefinitely after it was discovered that a third team – and possibly a fourth – had at least one positive case of COVID-19. The COVID-19 scare had existed before the tournament began and there were contesting voices as to whether the BCCI should have gone ahead with the mega event in the first place.
The Board was no doubt pretty confident that the SOPs it had employed in the series preceding IPL were effective, and counted on the bio-secure bubble to keep all participants safe, but clearly, too many people violated too many protocols and the result is clear for everybody to see.
Players and officials who broke the rules caused this problem no doubt but BCCI made it worse because of its failure to take timely action and ensure that no further breaches were allowed once the first few were reported and their effects known.
COVID-19 infections and deaths are mounting with alarming speed in India with no end in sight to the crisis. The country has witnessed scenes of people dying outside overwhelmed hospitals and funeral pyres lighting up the night sky. Many others have lost their jobs.
Under such circumstances was it right to continue to conduct the IPL which is essentially mass scale entertainment? Is the IPL more important than human lives? Even players from other countries are appalled that India is going ahead with the event despite the loss of lives.
Will the wealth that is being generated in the IPL be utilised to mitigate this suffering? Will any contributions be made towards reducing the impact of the virus? The answer is a big ‘no’. The IPL will continue to rake in money without doing anything for those who are being orphaned.
Meanwhile, the biggest immediate challenge for the BCCI is to get overseas players into their respective countries. As it stands, most countries in the world have already banned entry for those coming in from India, or are contemplating it. Australia is one of the countries that have done it. The UK will require those coming in to quarantine for ten days at a government-approved hotel and test on days two and eight.
It is no surprise that cases emerged inside the strict IPL bubbles within days of their travel from Chennai and Mumbai to Delhi and Ahmedabad. This will raise questions on whether it is safe to host the T20 World Cup in India. The ICC should look into it and take the BCCI’s inputs on it.
