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. 🤗
comment:
p_commentcount