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The Covid-19 pandemic
has thrown the plans to host season 13 of the IPL in jeopardy. IPL was
postponed in March and it is still not clear when the tournament will take
place this year.
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Agencies
New Delhi: The future of the Indian
Premier League in 2020 has been talked about in great lengths by the cricketing
world. The cash-rich league is one of the biggest sporting events in the world
while generating a massive amount of revenue for BCCI and cricketers. However,
the Covid-19 pandemic has thrown the plans to host season 13 of the IPL in
jeopardy. IPL was postponed in March and it is still not clear when the
tournament will take place this year. It has been said that the IPL could take
place if the T20 World Cup is postponed due to the infectious disease.
Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju has talked about the future
of sports in this post Covid-19 world. He said that India will not host any
international event in immediate future and fans will have to learn to live
with the new normal of sporting activities happening behind closed doors in the
post COVID-19 world.
Rijiju’s statement gain greater significance in the
context of the suspended IPL, which the BCCI wants to host in October-November
in case the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia is postponed.
“We have been working for quite some time now to resume
sporting activities but before that we have to think about practice and
training. We are not going to have a tournament kind of situation immediately,”
Rijiju was quoted as saying by India Today.
“We have to learn to live with the situation where
sporting events will have to be carried forward without spectators in stadiums
and sports venues,” he added.
Talking specifically about the 13th edition of IPL, which
has been put on hold for an indefinite period due to the pandemic, Rijiju said
it is the government’s prerogative to take a call on conducting any tournament
in the country.
“In India, the government has to take a call and it will
take a call depending on the situation. We cannot put health at risk just
because we want to have a sporting event.
“Our focus is fighting Covid-19 and at the same time we
will have to work a mechanism to get back to normalcy. It is difficult to
confirm dates but I am sure we will have some kind of sporting events this
year,” he said.
Rijiju’s statement came close on the heels of Sports
Authority of India (SAI) laying out a detailed Standard Operating Procedure for
resumption of sporting activities across the country in a phased manner.
“In the background their (athletes) fitness and
everything have been tracked. They are in touch with the coaches, the fitness
experts, the high performance directors. We are monitoring each and every
athlete who are of the higher stature, who played for India and higher clubs,”
he said.
“Now it has been laid out. SAI has prepared a detailed
SOP. These are prepared by experts from different fields. This SOP has already
been issued to all sports federations and other sports bodies including govt
stakeholders. So, based on this SOP training will start.”
The Sports Minister, however, reiterated that resumption
of sporting activities will entirely depend on guidelines of respective states
and local administrations.
“We have been clearly advising that health and safety are
top priorities. Besides that we have to keep in mind two other things, one is
the guidelines issued by the Home Ministry, second, is the guidelines issued by
the administrations of the respective localities or states. So, these are to be
taken into account,” he said.
“But we have clearly stated that sports complexes and
stadiums are open, other than that there should not be any activities till the
lockdown is there or we come up with a renewed kind of advice.” Asked about the
prospect of the Tokyo Games that were scheduled for this year but were
postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic, the Sports Minister said he is hopeful
of the quadrennial event taking place on the revised dates.
“Olympics is still far away and we have full confidence
in the Japanese government and IOC and every country will support that the
conduct of Tokyo 2021 will not be postponed. There are too many stakes in
Olympics, so it is difficult to even foresee that Olympics can be postponed,”
he said.
“As far as India’s preparation goes, we are at the best
stage of our preparation of any Olympics so far in history. This is going to be
India’s biggest contingent so far and have medal-winning prospects. But I am
not saying we are so prepared to finish in the top 10 or 5 but our long term
target is that India will be in the top 10 in 2028.”
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