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But BCCI should display more sensitivity

As cricketers pull out of the Indian Premier League (IPL), questions have been raised about whether the tournament should continue in view of the all-round carnage being wrought by the second wave of Covid-19. On balance, the answer is a qualified “yes”. Now in its 14th edition, this 20-over club tournament has been a blockbuster success that uniquely unites Indians across class, caste, and communal divides. In these grim times, it provides a much-needed diversion from the unrelenting bad news of Covid-19-related tragedies and public health mismanagement. This much was clear from the truncated edition of the IPL held in the United Arab Emirates in September last year, the first year of the pandemic. That edition turned out to be the most viewed IPL season, with an overall TV viewership of 405 million, a 25 per cent increase over the 2019 edition.

Provided the tournament continues to rigorously observe safety protocols for players and officials — regular testing, hospitality bubbles, and so on — there is no reason to stop it. Globally, major tennis, golf, and football tournaments continue, albeit in venues depressingly empty of supporters, offering sports fans respite from the stasis enforced by the virus. Distracting entertainment apart, there is a compelling economic reason for the IPL to continue. Though the stars are unlikely to suffer greatly, truncated or cancelled tournaments have impacted the earnings of related businesses (catering and stadium hospitality services, for example) as well as the livelihoods of back-up staff — groundsmen, linesmen, ball-boys, and even cheerleaders. Continuing the tournament allows these businesses and staffers to earn some income, which is critical at a time when joblessness is on the rise.

Importantly, it also helps finance domestic cricket since 20 per cent of team franchises’ top line earnings goes towards the revenue corpus of the state cricket associations. The Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) earns handsomely from the IPL, its biggest revenue earner from broadcasting, advertising, and sponsorship rights. The 13th edition, for instance, earned the board Rs 4,000 crore in revenue, and it hopes to match this amount in the current edition. That said, there is certainly a case for the BCCI to display more sensitivity to the unfolding catastrophe that has overtaken India. Last year, it donated just Rs 51 crore to the PM-CARES fund (its 2019-20 income was Rs 3,730 crore). This year, when things are so bad that an Australian cricketer Pat Cummins, who plays for Kolkata Knight Riders, has been moved to donate $50,000 to the PM-CARES, the BCCI is, in an embarrassing display of indifference, yet to loosen its purse-strings. Nor has it backed Cummins’ appeal to IPL colleagues to donate.

One cricketer pointed to the crores that team franchises are lavishing on players when ordinary people are gasping for beds, oxygen, and medicine. The BCCI would have done well to direct team owners to spend a proportion of their revenues to help hospitals expand their infrastructure. Small gestures, such as a minute’s silence in respect for the dead ahead of each match, would go a long way towards leavening the accusation of callousness. It is this glaring insensitivity that has prompted demands for the tournament to be cancelled. With over a month to go, the BCCI has ample time to show that the IPL is more than just a callous money-making machine.