The second wave of the pandemic caused by the Chinese Virus in India has wrecked a humongous disaster across the country. Everyday the number of infected people is growing at an alarming rate. The number of people succumbing to this relentless and constantly mutating virus is increasing each passing day. The TV news channels, newspaper websites are filled with reports, with macabre visuals showing cremation pyres, of the devastation the invisible virus is raging across the length and breadth of the nation. The social media channels are lit with people claiming to be from Left and Right of the political divide using the same visuals and reports to score political points like vultures feeding on the dead.
Unlike other natural calamities like earthquakes or floods or even Tsunami, a pandemic appears to be more devastating on the psyche of a nation because of the sheer duration of its existence. The biggest Earthquake will last a few seconds causing a great damage both to humans and their physical possessions. A flood/storm could last a few days bringing agony in its wake until it ebbs. The fury of these disastrous doesn’t prolong and within a couple of days their wreckage is complete. Of course it takes a whole lot longer for the rebuilding process. And soon the people (govt, admin, citizens) can start recovery process. In short the peak of the curve is more closer to the starting point and drops immediately then on. More importantly these catastrophes would mostly be confined to specific, relatively smaller epicenters.
This pandemic however has shown extreme perseverance. It’s been more than year since it began and we still don’t know if we are closer to the peak. It has affected population across the globe. The sheer spread of the virus across a big country like India makes the response that much more challenging as there will be cries for help from different places far off from each other at the same time. The recent Oxygen crisis is a case in point. The financial burden on the government and the public inflicted by the virus is well documented. The duration of the pandemic also takes a toll on the individual’s psyche at a different level. The stress of staying in a closed confinement, having to wear masks, being constantly vigilant while outside and the constant negativity all around can have a severe emotional impact.
Amidst all this the Board of Control for Cricket in India has organized the Indian Premier League - often referred as the cricket jamboree. IPL has often raised debates and almost always remains in news for one reason or the other. The Cricket purists (yours truly believes himself to be one) don’t find it to be real a cricket contest. Sure, it’s good entertainment but it doesn’t invoke an emotional attachment. However, they don’t dislike it. They enjoy the skills on display put on by the top cricketers from across the globe. On the other hand, many others, who generally excel in making a luxurious living by putting India’s poverty on show for their western consumers, find IPL to be a luxury that India can do without. After all, the players earn crores for a couple of months’ work and that’s just grotesque in a poor country like India; they reason. Of course, the fact that cricket players, both current and former, from much richer countries make a beeline to work(play and comment) in India doesn’t exactly sit nicely with the image that they are used to painting.
So, IPL has been a constant target whenever there’s something important or miserable happening in the country. There’s an election; stop the IPL. There’s a draught; do we need the IPL? And so on, it goes. Therefore, it doesn’t come as a surprise that there’s a constant debate in the media (legacy and social) whether IPL-2021 needs to be conducted in the midst and raging pandemic. I generally don’t care too much if the IPL was cancelled, but this year I believe it is okay and even beneficial to hold the IPL because we are in the midst of a gloomy pandemic.
We all agree that the best way to control the spreading and the damage caused by the virus is vaccination. The government is working towards the same and but it needs to scale it up immensely. Currently the vaccines production is way below the numbers needed by the country. The companies have often said they need financial resources to increase production and have asked the government for the same. Basically, the government needs to pay the vaccine companies upfront so that they increase the production, get the vaccine and provide them for free or a subsidized prices to a large portion of the population. IPL can support this in it own little way.
All IPL teams together pay their players amounting to ₹680 crores as salaries/contract amount. A certain portion of this amount goes to the government. If we consider this portion to be 30% then it comes to be ₹204 crores. That can purchase more than 1 crore vaccine shots. Then there’s the GST paid by the broadcaster(Star in this case) on the revenue earned for ad spots. This is supposed to be around ₹3600-₹3800 according to media reports. At 18% GST it comes to about ₹648 - ₹684 crores. That’s worth 3 - 4 crores vaccines shots. Then there will be GST collections from the services rendered by logistics companies, hotels, airlines, etc used for the tournament. In short, the IPL can sponsor the vaccinations for most of Karnataka. This is all happening without harming anything else. The entire IPL is being held in a bio bubble so the risk of it adding to the pandemic is next to nil.
Another, perhaps very important benefit of the IPL is the distraction it provides to its followers. In all the gloom and misery prevalent around us, a little sporting distraction, within the safe confines of our homes, could not be that bad, could it?