Bubble Bursts on IPL’s Callousness

The chickens have come home to roost and how! Faced with the grim pandemic reality of the Indian Premier League bio bubble potentially turning into a mass hospital quarantine, with reports of at least six infected cricketers and four teams exposed to the virus, the BCCI has finally decided to suspend the IPL indefinitely.

At what point does sport become untenable? When horrific images of people dying on the roads and being cremated dozens at a time in makeshift crematoriums, buried in overflowing graveyards, become the new identity of a nation whose government crowed they had put the virus behind them? When the courts accuse it of insensitivity and culpable murder for playing politics while failing to mobilise much needed oxygen and medical resources on a war footing?

Where does the buck stop?

The question has been answered for the BCCI, nearly a month into the IPL as shocking reports of infected cricketers and coaches spill out of the biosecure bubble, tumbling over each other in a flurry and toppling the IPL’s glass façade in a matter of hours.

From one to two cricketers in the Knight Riders team, to one in the Sunrisers Hyderabad, to three support staff in the Super Kings including a bus cleaner and a coach, to two more cricketers from separate teams including the Capitals turning up covid positive, not to mention five of the DDCA ground staff, events unfolded dramatically to reveal just how fragile the ecosystem was despite the BCCI’s assurances.

Despite talk of suspending matches only for a week and shifting the teams to Mumbai after being scathingly indicted for going ahead with matches in Delhi even as images of the dead and dying sent shivers around the world, this time the BCCI knew it had gotten more than it bargained for.

On Tuesday afternoon, with the writing on the wall, the Board went into an emergency huddle, eventually releasing a statement devoid of empathy or recognition of what the country is grappling with.

When it became clear that three matches in succession would have to be postponed or outright cancelled, and the others delayed indefinitely while the arduous task of isolating, testing and quarantining is conducted for at least another week, the BCCI finally got the message and took the easy way out.

In a statement that could not be more out of touch with reality, it announced its decision only when it was clear that it was no longer practical to bring back the tournament a week later, given the extent of exposure and bubble breach, not to mention the potentially dire consequences of dealing with mass infections, as the country is dealing with.

“The BCCI does not want to compromise on the safety of the players, support staff and the other participants involved in organizing the IPL. This decision was taken keeping the safety, health and well-being of all the stakeholders in mind.

“These are difficult times, especially in India and while we have tried to bring in some positivity and cheer, however, it is imperative that the tournament is now suspended and everyone goes back to their families and loved ones in these trying times.”

What the BCCI’s statement does not mention is the general disgruntlement amongst franchisees over the lack of sufficient testing kits once it was clear there was a possibility of a potential outbreak. Of their ire over the provided medical staff and the lack of effective GPS tracking handworn devices mandated for all players. Of the lack of a foolproof biosecure environment that should have included private corridors at airports, and charter flights given the travel between eight cities. Of the lack of mandatory isolation for hospitality staff ahead of the tournament, which it is being claimed was not done sufficiently anyway.

The cricket world divided right down the middle at the start of the IPL. That the tournament managed to even get to the halfway point speaks to the sheer audacity under which the BCCI has operated, turning a blind eye to the plight of millions, not to mention creating exigency plans for the IPL 2021 while operating under the guise of providing ‘relief and entertainment’.

This time India told the story, and it was not one of summer glitz and extravaganza, but of pain, unbearable loss and worse still, the sheer impunity with which its people have been made to run from pillar to post for vital oxygen or medicines or care, while the government touted itself for coming to the rescue of many a nation around the world during the first wave of infections.

The impunity at the government level has been striking; that the game can be heartless and soulless was painfully laid bare when the IPL failed to take cognisance of just how dangerously out of hand this situation could become were one player – just one player – to be subjected to the worst despite the promised five star, VIP hospital treatment.

It seems startling for the Australian Cricketers Associations chief to come out and say that Australian cricketers wanted to continue with the IPL and had gone into it with their eyes “wide open.” That they now face the prospect of not being allowed to enter their own country is terrifying enough, as evidenced by Michael Slater who fled India from his commentary duties and is stranded in the Maldives.

The din behind the story is that the franchisees were adamant at the tournament’s outset that the BCCI should host the fourteenth edition outside India, as they did in the UAE last year.

There was the situation with the entire Wankhede Stadium staff in Mumbai being covid positive at the time, and it seems the IPL governing council and indeed the BCCI should have read the signs early on. The IPL does not wish to be labelled as entertainment, but it has no compunction in borrowing the adage “the show must go on,” even a day before the official announcement of suspension, when it became apparent that at least four teams had been exposed and were in threat of being infected.

What broke the chasm wide open this week, even between ardent cricket aficionados who broke ranks with their beloved game on this one, was the appalling manner in which fellow citizens were encountering the prospect of losing their loved ones, not because India is necessarily a scarcity driven nation, but because precisely this kind of apathy has made it impossible to coordinate a response, allocate resources, act intelligently and at speed – as politicians traded barbs and not information, with an eye on elections and not the plunging crisis that has left the world aghast.

Could the IPL be called a super spreader?

Given its timing and the sheer callousness in its being arranged across eight venues around the country, the answer has to be yes. Despite the fact that fans were banned at certain venues like the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai but allowed in smaller numbers in Chennai, the IPL is still an ecosystem that not only includes the cricketers and the teams’ gigantic support staff but also ground staff, peripheral services including hospitality, hotel services, and other technicians and professionals often working as third-party contractors, to outsourced event management organisers who set up the signage boards and other instruments.

The BCCI claimed that jobs were at stake: but how many lives has it been able to save?

Would it compensate the daily wage earner who came in to fix an electric fixture, or someone who created the signage but is not part of the BCCI’s payroll?

It is not far fetched to assume that while these cricketers might still have access to the best of medical and health recourse and still find themselves gasping for breath as it were, the men and women for whom the BCCI is said to be doing a noble job by staging the IPL at a time like this could well have ended up needlessly exposing themselves to the virus, for what is a paltry one-off payout, and might end up finding themselves on the road, looking desperately for succour from an oxygen cylinder or the attention of a doctor if they manage to find a vacant hospital bed whose cost does not run into lakhs.

For those who argued that the IPL was vital from India’s standpoint to prove its viability to host the ICC Twenty20 World Cup this coming October, it should be pointed out that Cricket Australia had no qualms throwing up its hands last year when it did not think it could handle a sixteen team tournament, while also openly courting the BCCI to stage-manage the affair of India’s tour of Australia.

More pressingly, the present scenario makes it absurd for India to even think about hosting the World Cup in October, much less plan for it. What is of immediate concern is preventing unnecessary deaths and suffering, and helping create preventive measures to check the spread of the virus ahead of a potential and even deadlier third wave.

At a time when it is necessary to take stock of a toll that outstrips times of war, those who argue that the IPL holds a candle to the masses are either fooling themselves, or working on an agenda that is unmoved by the sheer, widespread, devastating, and altogether avoidable manner in which lives are being lost. The toll of this tragedy simply does not justify the ‘distraction’ argument, and never did. Rather it makes a mockery of a country that is as fanatical about its cricket as it is about its cricketer demigods.