Seconds before I started pouring over the keyboard to write this column, I came across an interesting interaction on Twitter between a stake-holder in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and a concerned fan. The stake-holder says: “Please do not think for one second that only the BCCI or players are the ones to lose out financially if the IPL does not happen. I know event managers, freelance media persons, production crew etc etc whom the IPL is essential to income. Coronavirus won’t stop their EMIs.”
The angry reply is: “You are a sick man. I am sure you won’t sing the same tune if you or one of your loved ones get infected by the virus after going to watch an IPL match..” This exchange sums up the dilemma the BCCI faces while deciding on whether to hold the IPL, which begins this month, or to defer or cancel it this year. This is an issue they have never faced before, their moral world mostly being limited to profit vs ethics which does not engender the safety of human life. In their world, ethics is an expendable commodity while money and profit is precious, the gold-standard to judge their performance.
Today the whole world is quarantined, millions have become willing prisoners in their homes and each day fears that the coronavirus pandemic may take a worse turn is stalking the world. The government’s stringent advisory and making India literally a no-entry zone till April 15 is a clear indicator of what it thinks needs to be done to prevent its spread in the country. Any public gathering is considered a threat, hence events which invite large crowds are being postponed, which include many sports tournaments in India and in the world.
Even the Olympics, still a couple of months away and by far the biggest sporting event every four years, is under threat and could be deferred, but here in India our cricket establishment is a class apart. It is its own authority and has ears for just one word: Money. No one should be surprised if they were to find out that the board may have given no thought to coronavirus and its impact on holding cricket events while the whole world, including the sports establishment, was responding to the challenge of preventing its spread in the past month or so.
They have been forced to respond now, not because they realise that an event which is not only played over nearly two months and draws huge crowds, in thousands, and has hundreds travelling across the country every day, could be an open invitation for the virus to spread. If they are responding, it is more to do with pressure from certain sections of the media, which is demanding that the IPL be either deferred or postponed and not because they themselves feel responsible or concerned.
What does one expect from a board, that does not even follow the orders of the Supreme Court and considers itself above the law! The disappointing part is not that the BCCI is still mulling over how to save the tournament and is keen to go ahead, even if it means playing in front of empty stadiums. What is despairing is that the Indian board and its echo chamber that include even players is so insensitive to public issues and concerns at large that they may even now be believing that the Indian nation’s priority should be IPL and not to prevent the spread of a deadly virus.