Five days ago, when India played the Women’s World T20 final, there was no hint that coronavirus would be classified as global pandemic by the World Health Organisation. Within hours of the announcement on Wednesday, global sport has gone into a tailspin. Event after major event has been cancelled, some not even willing to play in camera without spectators around to cheer.
Even as the Indian women’s miserable performance in the final was still being analysed, the South African men’s team arrived in India to play three ODIs. The first game at Dharamsala was luckily rained off and by now the virus was very much at India’s doorstep.
The BCCI appeared insistent on playing the remaining two games, and also the cash-rich Indian Premier League. By Friday afternoon, wisdom dawned upon the Sourav Ganguly-led board and the IPL was put off till April 15 from the scheduled March 29 start. Before eventually rescheduling the last two matches of the South Africa ODI series, the BCCI had decided to hold the matches in Lucknow and Kolkata behind closed doors, leaving spectators to watch on television.
The world badminton body decided to call off all events from March 16 to April 12, including the India Open. The ISL final in Goa on Saturday, on the other hand, will happen behind closed doors.Badminton stars Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap are worried about their qualification for Tokyo Olympics. Kashyap is clear that after the world body’s suspension of all events, current rankings should be frozen and a decision on qualification should happen at a later stage.
See, how quickly the sports authorities around the world reacted. NBA was suspended the moment they came to know one of its stars tested positive. Utah Jazz and the Oklahoma City Thunder were warming up when they were asked to return on hearing that Jazz center Rudy Gobert had the virus. Without wasting time, Toronto Raptors, Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics and the Washington Wizards, the teams that played Jazz before Gobert tested positive, asked their players and staff to go on their own into precautionary quarantine. French international Gobert was not at the arena and yet the NBA owners decided to suspend the entire season.
The NBA decision had a cascading effect. The National Hockey League and Major League Soccer also suspended their seasons. It is unusual in the US for sporting activities to come to a halt due to a health issue. Seeing the gravity of the situation and how the virus causing havoc, the ATP Tour has been suspended and so are popular soccer leagues, La Liga and Serie A. The entire English football schedule has been suspended till April 3. The Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, the first race of the Formula One season, was cancelled even before Friday’s practice race after a McLaren team member tested positive.
The virus shadow is fast getting to the Tokyo Olympics, but it is not so easy to cancel such a major event. As of now, the International Olympic Committee is waiting with bated breath. US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the Games be postponed by a year instead of holding them behind closed doors was shot down by Japan’s Olympic minister Seiko Hashimoto.
Spare a thought for the Indian girls who could not withstand the pressure of playing a big final before 86,174 fans. Unlike Mithali Raj’s team, which lost the 50-over World Cup from a winning position, this one never looked like winning. Two things went against India. Not having played a game for a full week before the final and losing the toss as they believed runs on the board have greater insurance than the scoreboard pressure, chasing. Curiously, India chased down Australia’s 174 in the tri-series before the World Cup and in the opener they defended 132.
Mentally, the Indian girls thought of batting first, but a rollicking start by Australia and scrappy fielding let them down. A missed catch did not help either. But they have done well to enter the final as the only unbeaten team and their future looks good.
(The writer is a veteran commentator. Views expressed are personal. He can be reached at sveturi@gmail.com)