Chetan Sakariya's tragedy and the moral dilemma of postponing IPL 2021 due to coronavirus

IPL 2021 was in the news for all the wrong reasons before the start of the tournament and during the tournament. When the tournament began in April, the second wave of the coronavirus was devastating India. When the bio-bubble was breached due to various factors, it was only a matter of time before the tournament was postponed. Players from all over India and the world are scrambling back to get to their homes. Amidst all this, there has been one tragedy involving Chetan Sakariya, the Rajasthan Royals pacer.

Chetan Sakariya was purchased by Rajasthan Royals for Rs 1.2 crore. His base price was Rs 20 lakhs. For an individual who had lost his brother a few months before the auction, this at least gave him dreams. Sakariya did not even own a pair of bowling shoes when he started his cricket career. It was only with the help of Sheldon Jackson that he managed to get his boots. His simple dream was to buy a house in Rajkot. It is an ambition for many Indians. When he was playing IPL 2021, his father was hospitalized due to coronavirus. When Chetan Sakariya came back to Bhavnagar, his father died due to COVID19 complications.

During his father’s hospitilisation, Sakariya told the Indian Express, “People are saying, stop IPL. I want to tell them something. I am the only bread earner in my family. Cricket is the only source of my earnings. I can give better treatment to my father because of the money I earned from IPL. Had this tournament not happened for a month, it would have been tougher for me. I come from a poor family, my father all his life drove tempo and because of IPL my whole life was about to change.”

Elitism, selective outrage and need for more BCCI vigilance

Each statement echoes the sentiment of Sakariya and all the other players who are not part of the creamy layer. For far too long, cricket has been the soft target for all the ills plaguing society. For Sakariya and other players who are not part of the BCCI core of players, the IPL represents the ultimate opportunity. 

The calls to cancel IPL 2021 amidst the coronavirus pandemic represents the ultimate moral dilemma. It reeks of elitism. But, it is the instinctive reaction for safety. The cancellation calls do not understand the ground reality of cricketers. The fact that there were many statements made about IPL being a super-spreader were never true.

Yet, Sakariya’s situation could have been made better had only the BCCI enforced the bio-bubble Standard Operating Procedures even more vigilantly. The BCCI owed it to all the players to ensure that the IPL 2021 would be played without any hassles. Yet, the bio-bubble was breached. The BCCI has no answers. It is lucky that Rajasthan Royals released part of the payment for Sakariya so that his father could get the best treatment.

Fans who criticized the holding of the IPL amidst the pandemic were definitely oblivious to the plight of marginalized cricketers like Sakariya. Even if they knew, they were oblivious and myopically focused on canceling the IPL. For them, it was ‘safety first’. But, the statements by Sakariya are a slap to the fans who said IPL should have been canceled. Next time, before instinctively calling for the cancellation, one needs to have a holistic outlook.