BCCI decided to continue IPL Matches ... do you agree or not? Why?

Viswasruti thumbnail

Royal Challengers Bengaluru

Posted: 3 years ago

Despite  five cricketers choosing to return home midway through the IPL and a growing chorus calling for the tournament’s postponement because of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided against suspending the league!

The IPL tournament is carrying on despite India's worsening COVID-19 crisis. ... There are few things that can dampen India's love for cricket, not even, it turns out, a monstrous second wave of a once in a century pandemic

"We do understand these are tough times and we will try and facilitate travel of players who are leaving for various reasons and their replacements, if any, in consultation with the franchises,” the official said.

Now .... 

Indeed, it has led to a line of thinking that the IPL should be called off. That in a time of national tragedy as this is - and a tragedy that, by all estimates, will get worse before it gets better - sport is irrelevant, perhaps even disrespectful. This is not a time for light entertainment. A few are thinking like this .... but --

That is debatable, because there are clearly takers for the IPL as entertainment or distraction from the surrounding grimness. Anecdotal evidence, perhaps, but I can hear the TV commentary from neighboring houses around mine every evening, and I know of people - including one 80-year-old aunt - who wait for that match every day to offer some relief! 

On Sunday afternoon, as the captains of Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore waited for the toss,the commentator Ian Bishop put out this public service announcement: mask up, keep a safe distance, self-sanitise. The simple message, repeated several times during play, was the first high-visibility sign of the IPL as an institution addressing the resurgence of the Covid-19 pandemic that has wreaked havoc in India. 

What is your opinion on this matter friends? To continue or not to continue the remaining IPL matches? 

It is only to share our views, not for arguments or to hurt anyone's tender feelings. 🤗

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vijay thumbnail

Royal Challengers Bengaluru

Posted: 3 years ago

Well to keep Indians at home they need to be provided some entertainment and IPL is great at that. 


It was good to see that they are using the IPL platform to amplify the importance of following Covid Protocols during the matches.

vijay thumbnail

Royal Challengers Bengaluru

Posted: 3 years ago

Well if IPL would have been a COVID Super Spreader event, then I would have said that yes please stop it. Thankfully it is not as they managing it in a secured Bio Bubble. They are tested for Covid regularly if not daily.


Let aside the job creation this event generates, also how it’s giving platform to young cricketers who would not have been discovered at such young age.


Just a simple question that if we stop IPL event will it solve the Covid problem from India. So why do we even think of stopping it.

Edited by vijay - 3 years ago
Viswasruti thumbnail

Royal Challengers Bengaluru

Posted: 3 years ago

@hbkrocks, With all due respect to your opinion, I am simply asking you to reflect on the other side of the issue please...

The players are maintaining a safe distance by being played in a bio-bubble to empty cricket stadiums across India. Critics of the sporting spectacle, however, want the match to be called off. As the second surge of the Covid rips through the country, with a record number of deaths and spikes of distress, they argue it is insensitive and uncaring for the game to go on. But this is misguided moral outrage.  It offers a false choice between respecting the dead or fighting the pandemic and being distracted or even entertained by a cricket match. One does not cancel out the other. The only valid argument against scrapping a sporting event in the middle of a pandemic is ---if it violates safety protocols or threatens to become a source of contagion or if it diverts precious resources, whether oxygen or lifesaving drugs, that can be better put to use in containing the curve. None of these apply to the IPL.

On personal grounds the Australian players and our  Ravichandran Ashwin opted out from the ipl. Those are personal choices that must be respected. Indeed, the bubble can shield players from the reality of the pandemic only to a certain extent. For some, it might even be true that the riveting contests in a sporting arena offer little solace when fellow citizens fight a deadly disease.

 But it is equally true that for millions more, cricket or cinema or music offers a reprieve. To grudge a few hours of escape to people under stress is to be a killjoy bent on planting a flag on the moral high ground. Finally, the IPL is a big money making machine, generating ads and jobs that a strained economy must not disregard. 

But don’t our cricketers have a responsibility to a country in crisis? Yes... till now they were enjoyed our adoration, hero worship and patronage! As Olympian Abhinav Bindra pointed out, cricketers must be mindful of their privilege and use it well. They can follow the lead of Australian Pat Cummins, who has donated $50,000 to the PM Cares Fund. The BCCI, the world’s richest cricketing board, can use its considerable resources and reach to raise both money and awareness, which it is doing now. Let us join hands with each one to win over the death and associated distress, let us do our best to save the humanity from this holocaust. 

Please share your opinions/ views on this point. 😊

vijay thumbnail

Royal Challengers Bengaluru

Posted: 3 years ago

At any given point someone is losing their life in some part of the world and in India. There is tragedy unfolding somewhere or the other. Still the human spirit is such that life goes on. Life is such that after watching a sad/tragic news on TV we get back to something else to divert our mind. May be we are programmed that way to overcome sorrows and continue living.


As I said in my previous comment if IPL would have been a super spreader event then they should not have halted. If they would have been using any resources that would have otherwise been used in fighting Covid it would surely made sense to discontinue this season of IPL. But that is not the case.

Like we all managing our work from our home which is our bio bubble space. The same way Players are going about their work which is playing in their enlarged bio bubble. Yes IPL is a sports event but please note they not doing it just for fun, they are professionals who have limited number of years to play and make the most out of it before they retire.


The good thing is that they are using that platform to create awareness about following Covid protocols during the matches. Atleast it is able to keep millions of people busy, entertained and away from the streets (even if it is for few hours).


Covid is a Global Pandemic and yes several people have lost their lives or livelihood to this. Global Economy has taken such a huge hit and businesses stuggling to stay afloat. We need to find ways to come back to the new normal and continue our lives.


Stay Safe Stay Healthy.

oh_nakhrewaali thumbnail
Posted: 3 years ago

I agree with the last bit. This nation has hero worship and the least we can expect is the cricketers come out and extend help They have a huge reach, putting a up story about someone requiring oxygen cylinders is the least they can do.

BhetuPunha thumbnail
Anniversary 5 Thumbnail Group Promotion 4 Thumbnail
Posted: 3 years ago

The only question that needs to be answered is, by discontinuing IPL is the Covid situation going to get better ? I guess it is not going to get better. Discontinuing IPL for symbolic purposes is not good thinking.

IPL brings in revenue to states where IPL matches are played. In these tough times it is important that states get revenue and IPL is contributing towards that👍🏼.


However the cricketers need to make contribution towards fight against Covid😎, monetary or otherwise, they have been lacking in this 👎🏼barring a few.

Edited by BhetuPunha - 3 years ago
Avyakta thumbnail
Anniversary 9 Thumbnail Group Promotion 5 Thumbnail Commentator 1 Thumbnail
Posted: 3 years ago

I agree with Madi and Vijay sir.  

In any way it will neither solve the Covid problem by stopping the game, nor will elevate the mood of millions. 

I still feel better to continue it to divert our attention from death and scary scenes. 

Viswasruti thumbnail

Royal Challengers Bengaluru

Posted: 3 years ago

When we are able to focus on the game and the players, viewing sports allows us to let go of the stress and negativity surrounding us esp in such pandemic time. If, even for a few hours, our anxiety and feelings of depression are no longer at the forefront of our mind. IPL is working as a stress buster for many now, it works as  a universal language and a metaphor for life, and in that, it has the power to connect us! 

In this shared experience, people may collectively identify with or rally around characteristics such as competition, teamwork, witnessing the will of the human spirit, navigating emotions, and facing a challenge and rising to the occasionall of which are elements of our daily life. 

But the main concern is -- praying for the safety and good health of all the involved players and organisers. 

mishkil88 thumbnail
Posted: 3 years ago

I think people are scared of seeing news channels. Ipl is a good source of entertainment.  It diverts our minds and we feel relaxed by seeing sports. So spare the ipl. I don't think once govt has agreed they will ever stop it. Ipl will continue .