Homecoming of IPL with the threat of the pandemic

With the long-term after-effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the IPL tournament, the Mumbai Indians won the IPL titles thrice on Friday in Chennai with an empty stadium. The royal challengers Bangalore was the opponent.  Concern rose among the players as two of the four players were affected with the virus in the bio bubbles which are expected to be secure.  They declared their need to shift to a new lockdown of eight weeks. The outbreak of the virus is visible again as Axar Patel who is a major spinner of Delhi capitals, Bangalore’s Daniel Sams and Devdutt Padikkal, Kolkata knight rider’s Nitish Rana have been in quarantine after getting infected by the virus. Besides the virus has also affected ten ground staff at the Wankhede stadium of Mumbai.

The tournament will conclude on 30^thMay until which the entire eight teams are strictly restricted to the bio bubble. The restriction is also imposed on the international top cricket stars such as Australia’s Steve Smith and ben strokes of England. To control and manage each team, the board of control for cricket in India also known as BCCI has arranged bubble integrity managers.

Virat Kohli who is the captain of India talked about the difficulties of spending time in the bubble after India played its series against England. He said that the participants are becoming cooked. He highlighted the need for scheduling in the future as persistent playing in the bubbles for two to three months is extremely difficult.

The president of the BCCI, Sourav Ganguly has mentioned that when compared to foreign players, Indian sportsmen deal the pandemic stress in a better way. The statement created much controversy which was expected to stop by Ganguly once the tournament begins. He said that nothing is possible to happen once the player is inside the bubble. Gangly informed the Indian media that the virus also affected the players when ipl was held in the United Arab Emirates last year but with the proceedings of the tournament, everything returned to normal without any fear.

Kasi Viswanathan who is the chief executive of the Chennai super kings told AFP that he is not worried about the matches which will be played in six stadiums and will be empty without any spectators.  The presence of the integrity managers will manage the situation without creating any fear among the players.

To prepare for the T20 world cup which is expected to be held in November and October, the ipl will be of lots of advantage to serve as preparation as believed by overseas players such as Jonny Bairstow who is an England batsman. Sunrisers Hyderabad player Bairstow said that it will be an outstanding chance to play at various grounds which will prepare them for the T20 world cup.

Rajasthan Royals bought South Africa’s Chris Morris for $2.25 million which made him the most expensive player of the tournament. He lastly played for South Africa in 2019 and said that the focus on the world cup would assist him further for the matches.