IPL 2021, being held in India, is catching attention for many reasons besides cricket these days. Being held amid pandemic, some players have quit halfway.
EBNW Sports Desk
The prestigious Indian Premier league cricket tournament, half way these days, in under fire. The organizers, BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) are under pressure to complete the 2021 tournament in face of diverse opinion, nay opposition, from quarters asking for a more-safe playing conditions in face of the pandemic assuming dense proportions in India. Many overseas players did not turn up at start. Some quit half way. More wickets are to fall soon!
Australians Rod Tucker and Paul Reiffel, plus Indian Nitin Menon, have been relieved of umpiring number of games. Any reason why the IPL is continuing while the pandemic runs out of control in the country? Why around 40 Australians are pressing on with playing, coaching, umpiring and commentating? The BCCI’s Hemang Amin stated, “While you are professionals and will play to win, this time you are also playing for something much more important – humanity.”
What about the look? Tens of thousands of Australians are stranded overseas,
Be noted: Pat Cummins donated $US50,000 to the fight against Covid-19. Brett Lee followed suit. These generous gestures are much appreciated. But they raise an awkward question. If individual cricketers can kick in this way, why can’t the game as a whole? If the IPL must proceed, why not donate all prize money to the Covid cause? The question is raised by Greg Baun, writing in The Melbourne Age on 28 April 2021.
His sympathy for Australian players and anger against BCCI is too explicit: “Better still, why not call off the whole vulgar exercise and divert all of Indian cricket’s vast resources to the catastrophe laying on its doorstep? There’s a bit of money kicking around in Indian cricket, you know. Over to you, the great humanitarians of the BCCI.”