The IPL 2021 has seen some positive cases of coronavirus as the pandemic sees a surge in the country in the last couple of weeks.
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It seems the coronavirus pandemic never went away. At this time, in 2020, India was in total lockdown for 21 days. The IPL was postponed and not played in India. It was played in the UAE from September to November. Even there, it was behind closed doors. A year later, life has come a full circle. The coronavirus is seeing a surge in India. Maharashtra is bearing the brunt again, with close to 50,000 cases witnessed on Friday. Mumbai alone is seeing over 8000 cases in the last couple of days.
There is only one week to go for IPL 2021. Already, the coronavirus is dominating proceedings. Nitish Rana tested positive. Axar Patel has also been affected by COVID-19. Eight groundstaff at the Wankhede, as well as one Chennai Super Kings official, have also been laid low by the pandemic. The BCCI is already calling for stricter checking and is keeping Hyderabad as a contingent venue due to the situation in Mumbai. It seems highly unlikely that games will be held there. If they are held, it will need luck and logistical miracles.
If one has to look at the broader picture, hosting the IPL in the middle of the coronavirus wave represents the worst-case scenario. It cannot be mere coincidence that the surge in coronavirus cases is happening after fans were allowed in at 50 percent capacity. The logical argument is at that time, the surge of cases was not so great. But, if one takes a closer look at the venues where matches were held, the relation is too great to ignore.
When the second Test in Chennai was thrown open to fans at 50 percent capacity, Tamil Nadu was reporting 470 cases. Now, there are close to 3000 cases. In Ahmedabad, when 50 percent of the fans were allowed in the 110,000 capacity at Narendra Modi stadium in February, the city witnessed a spike. Within one month, the surge in cases crossed 300 and night curfew was imposed, with three Twenty20 Internationals being played behind closed doors.
The Road Safety World Series was played in Raipur and it witnessed a decent crowd at the Shaheed Veer Narayan stadium. Social distancing norms, at least when viewed from TV sets, were not followed. But, there can always be another side as to the stadium was not fully packed. At that time, Raipur was recording over 200 cases per day. Now, it has crossed 1500 everyday.
Yes, it is agreed that the show must go on. One cannot afford another lockdown. Sports must be played. Agreed, the economics must come back on track. Sports is the ultimate tonic for depression. But, at what cost in the long term? Every surge now impacts the future. Coronavirus is like a chain reaction.
India conveniently scoffed when Australia imposed circuit-breaker lockdowns in some cities to combat the coronavirus when the team were there. They even got their way in the sense that they did not have to do the hard lockdown in Brisbane when everyone in the city was in that situation.
India is the third-worst affected country in the world. The IPL is being played behind closed doors. But, movement of teams, however small, involves a fairly large group. Anything can trigger an infection. In the middle of the coronavirus wave, we are probably making the mistake which we avoided in 2020.
