Good, Bad & Ugly ft Cristiano Ronaldo, the Ranji Trophy final and the Coronavirus

Good, Bad & Ugly ft Cristiano Ronaldo, the Ranji Trophy final and the Coronavirus

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SportsCafe

We’re back with another weekly edition of Good, Bad and Ugly which is basically a roundup of some of the most startling events that have taken place this week. And that includes the Road Safety series, Cristiano Ronaldo, and the coronavirus ruling the world of sport among other things.

The Good

Cristiano Ronaldo turns his hotels into hospitals

With coronavirus turning the world upside down, football in England, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, France, Germany and well, most of the world has been suspended. The Champions League is gone but in the midst of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain having dance parties in his house and football Twitter playing games of Tic-Tac-Toe and Connect Four, Cristiano Ronaldo has decided to turn what is a mutli-million hotel chain he has in Portugal into hospitals. The superstar has also decided that any patient walking in will not be charged with Ronaldo also covering the cost of the salaries of all the doctors and workers. Now, this is definitely a PR stunt. But as PR stunts go, it’s possibly the best one Ronaldo could think of.

Road Safety series and the wisdom of legends

Just a few weeks following Sachin Tendulkar padding up to face the Ellyse Perry challenge at the Bushfire Bash, the cricketing legend once again stood up for a great cause in the Road Safety series that was recently held. The Road Safety Cell of Maharashtra conducted this T20 tournament, including five teams with legends contesting against each other, to be held across Pune and Mumbai. From Sachin to Brian Lara, from Zaheer Khan to Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the legends produced an ultimate show of sportsmanship starting March 7. But when it came to wisdom, the legends were at their best again. ‘It’s unfortunate but right’, both Lara and Sachin collectively opined about the rescheduling of the T20 tournament, due to the coronavirus pandemic, which was all about raising awareness and helping towards a great cause. 

The Bad

Liverpool get knocked out of the Champions League

Off all the teams to do, it had to be Atletico Madrid. But for Liverpool, this marks the end of their era and that’s despite them winning the Premier League title. That’s in the hypothetical situation if the season ever continues because, in the end, the only thing that the world will remember is that they got knocked out of two trophies in a matter of three weeks. Even winning their Premier League title, will mean next to nothing but the fact that it happened to Atletico Madrid, a struggling Atletico Madrid will hurt the Reds even more. They walked in with the hopes of Anfield and their incredible team but walked out with their first loss, European or otherwise, in a really long time. Troubling times for the Jurgen Klopp and the Reds.

Saina and Srikanth crashing out of the first round of All England Championships

The opening day for India at the All England Championships wasn’t all bad with PV Sindhu registering a win against an opponent who is ranked eight places below her in rankings. However, things soon changed for India as it was curtains for Saina Nehwal and Srikanth Kidambi’s run at the championship as they crashed out of the first round of the competition. To add more to the misery, two other Indians- Sai Praneeth and Parupalli Kashyap- also joined Saina and Srikanth in the tournament exit. The two are still looking to make it to the Olympics but it hard luck for them at the All England Championships wherein they had to face tough first-round opponents. While Srikanth lost in straight games to world number five Chen Long of China, Nehwal was battered by the former world No.1 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, who sealed the game in just 28 minutes.

The Ugly

Sports crisis due to coronavirus

It’s that point in the sporting universe when sport and the coronavirus pandemic stand inseparable. The world keeps waking up to a different set of reports, every day, about all kinds of sporting events getting cancelled due to the massive outbreak of the Covid-19. It has been so out of bounds that the first ODI between Australia and New Zealand was held closed doors, following which the remainder of the series was cancelled. The BCCI not only cancelled the home series against South Africa and all domestic games but also postponed the IPL till April 15. Meanwhile, the final of the Indian Super League(football) was also held in front of empty stands and all major international leagues like the Premier League, La Liga, Champions League and the Euro Cup have also been postponed. If the outbreak continues, many dread that it might also affect the Olympics. 

The UFC’s says the show will go on despite coronavirus outbreak 

Football has shut down. Sporting events have shut down. Countries have shut down and placed themselves on quarantine. The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) cancelled March Madness. MLB (Major League Baseball) has called off spring training and delayed the season PGA Tour cancelled events, while the MLS (Major League soccer), NHL (National Hockey League) and NBA (National Basketball League) have suspended their upcoming seasons until further notice. And yet, the rest of America continues to be defiant of everything surrounding the coronavirus. They don’t believe they’re affected by it and it has seen UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) defy the pandemic and instead imply that the show must go on. To make matters worse, UFC’s Saturday show in Brasilia was limited to staff and key personnel but the fighters were never tested for COVID. Then UFC president Dana White has confirmed that there are no changes to the fight cards with the company even moving a fight from Columbus to Nevada. There are checks in place but if nothing else, this is a prime example of how greed works in sports.

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