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Video Producer: Shohini Bose
Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam
Camera: Ira Khanna
Yeh Jo India Hai Na… We love cricket and the IPL. But in the middle of the second COVID wave, can the IPL go on? Should the IPL go on?
These three drawings by Art of Resistance that place the tragic spectacle of thousands of daily COVID cremations inside a cricket stadium sum up one view – that it is simply insensitive to be playing cricket, celebrating wickets falling with high-fives and fist-pumps, even as within kilometres of these stadiums, people are cremating hundreds and hundreds of their loved ones.
From 28 April, Delhi became an IPL venue. Feroz Shah Kotla ground is right next to Delhi’s biggest COVID hospitals. While ambulances rush past the stadium carrying patients gasping for life, would it not seem disrespectful for a game of cricket to be going on within? It would.
India's ace shooter and Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra says:
We see Sourav Ganguly who is also BCCI chief, acting in fantasy cricket ads, we see cricket’s gods – Dhoni, Kohli, Rohit, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant – and even earlier gods – Sehwag, Gavaskar, Dravid – during ad breaks. But barring some messages, we see NONE of them talking about masking, social distancing, or asking people to get vaccinated!
Abhinav Bindra also rightly asks Sourav Ganguly that why has the BCCI, which is worth almost Rs 14,500 crore, barely contributed anything towards fighting the second COVID surge.
This inaction is being seen as not caring about the tragedy. Veteran sports journalist Sharda Ugra says:
A question for Dada. Team India’s BCCI-run Twitter handle has 14.5 million followers, the IPL’s Twitter handle has 6.2 million followers, the IPL telecast is watched by millions, but barring some short messages, why this silence on COVID? It almost seems, and dare I say it… there is pressure on them all to stay silent.
27 April saw a close game between Delhi and Bangalore. Rishabh Pant getting Delhi close, but losing by 1 run off the last ball. Seconds later, Chahal, Kohli, Mohammad Siraj, whose yorkers in the last over had kept Pant from scoring, all these RCB players were around Rishabh, consoling him.
We saw emotion, drama, and lots of sporting spirit. This IPL has seen stunning centuries by Sanju Samson and Devdutt Padikkal, little known Harshal Patel’s superb bowling, veterans like Gayle, Shikhar Dhawan, Raina, de Villiers showing they can still compete. Sir Ravindra Jadeja’s terrific 5 consecutive sixes.
The point being, that like all sport, IPL too, can be inspiring, uplifting. Taking the impossible catch, completing the impossible run, bowling that unreadable doosra, so much so, that even a critic like Abhinav Bindra accepts:
Dear IPL bosses, celebrity cricketers and celebrity commentators, Yeh Jo India Hai Na… it needs you to use your privilege and your incredible popularity to let people know you are with them in their grief and to spread the critical messages about masking, social distancing, and vaccination. Do that, and you’ll become even bigger heroes for us all.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)
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