Can cricket start being more cautious about imminent coronavirus threat
Chaos, fear and panic are the three words that are currently reverberating amongst every single human on this planet. The world is currently in the midst of the worst pandemic outbreak that has been seen in decades and thus, it is unsurprising as to why we are bearing witness to a lot of distress.
But if youâre a cricket fan who has been tuning into nothing but the sport, there is every reason for you to believe that there is absolutely nothing weird, strange or fear-inducing thatâs happening in the world outside.
As of this moment, there are three bilateral international series - including Australia vs South Africa, Bangladesh vs Zimbabwe and Afghanistan vs Ireland - and a major T20 league - Pakistan Super League - to go along with a T20 World Cup that are happening simultaneously with thousands of people turning up to the stadium to witness the action, every single day. Normal. Team India will be back in action in five days time and that will, as is the case always, attract an incredulous number of people to the stadiums. Normal. And in 20 days time, the Indian Premier League (IPL), the sportâs biggest, grandest and the most popular global T20 tournament, will kick off and the entirety of India will go into festival mode. Normal.
But it is time to stop pretending that everything is normal. Things are clearly not normal - the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak, as of this moment, has over 102,000 confirmed cases across 97 countries and has been declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Schools and colleges have been shut, countries have gone into lockdown, outdoor activities that involve groups of people gathering together at one place are being completely ditched and abandoned and concerts and sporting events are being cancelled. Of course, there is always an argument that all of this is nothing but sheer panic, for the fatality rate of the disease still stands less than 5%, but the truth remains that no one truly knows where weâre headed.Â
And in these times of despair, it must be said that the response from the elite cricketing authorities - be it the International Cricket Council (ICC) or the individual cricketing boards of the countries - has been disenchanting. There have been no precautionary measures taken to curtail the potential threat of the outbreak, nor has there been any education - neither to the players nor the fans - about the virus. And we are well into the second week of the pandemic having become an issue of global panic.Â
How and why there has been all but no measure of any sorts been taken by the authorities, keeping in mind the best interests of the players and the fans, is flabbergasting. "It's onâŚand the BCCI will take all protection (against coronavirus)," was all Sourav Ganguly, the president of the BCCI, could come up with whilst speaking about the potential threat that the virus could pose to the IPL. Yet, there have been no signs of any âprotectionâ thatâs being taken.
People continue to flood the stadiums in the country UNPROTECTED and post the DY Patil Cup game on Saturday, crowds were allowed to invade the ground. If this is the âprotectionâ that Ganguly, five days ahead of a bilateral series against South Africa and 22 days ahead of the IPL, is talking about, then I guess we all can unanimously agree that the BCCI are doing a terrible job at it.Â
For a sport that often takes the elitist standpoint and associates itself with âspiritâ and âvaluesâ, cricketâs response to the whole coronavirus saga has been appalling. Fair enough, ECB did their bit by ditching handshakes in favour of fist-bumps, but thatâs all there is to it. If they are indeed downplaying and underestimating the threat, then it is nothing but sheer ignorance.Â
Perhaps, all they need to do is take a good look at whatâs happening around them - A vast majority of the European nations are pondering playing all matches behind closed doors and Italy and France have already started the same; The organizers of the BNP Paribas Tennis Open (Indian Wells), on Saturday, released a set of nine precautionary measures that they will be taking to ensure player, official and fan safety; The Stanford Athletic events in the United States have decided to limited crowds at the events owing to coronavirus concerns; There are serious talks about the Olympics, the biggest sporting event in the planet, potentially getting cancelled. The threat is real and it needs to be embraced and not downplayed.Â
From the little information we have, we also know that primary mode of transmission for the virus is through physical contact - either person-to-person or object-to-person - and, weirdly enough, the way the sport is played, it entices a lot of physical contact; object-to-person, that is. From players to officials to security guards to fans, you have dozens of people getting their hands on the cricket ball and, to add to that, you also have the players using sweat, saliva, part of their clothing and so on to âshine the ballâ. Of course, the whole argument comes off as silly and stupid, for in that case, weâd need to bring the whole sport to halt, but the least that can be done is take precautionary measures.
That does not necessarily mean that you have players, officials and fans sporting gloves, masks and whatnot. However, feasible measures - like what organizers of Indian Wells did - can be taken. Hand sanitizing stations can be placed in the stadium; Volunteers taking tickets at entrances can be made to wear gloves; Awareness can be instilled amongst the fans and common areas throughout the stadium can be cleaned on a regular basis with an antiviral applicant. For all we know, these little things might end up making a huge difference.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to the effort the people who run the sport are willing to take. It goes without saying that thus far, the sport of Cricket has been way behind the 8 ball. Itâs time for the authorities to wake up, for, by turning a blind eye to the situation, all they are doing is unnecessarily risking the possibility of putting the health of both the players and the fans under jeopardy. Â
