IPL amidst Pandemic or is it Padnemic!!

IPL has had so far 13 editions of experience- in India, South Africa, UAE once each and UAE again now.IPL  finals have been a brutally fought match till now. Mumbai Indians have emerged winners 4 times and Chennai Super kings thrice victorious. Dhoni led Chennai Super Kings have entered finals so far 9 times in 12 finals and that is phenomenal domination. Elections drove IPL out of India once in 2009 to South Africa and now the COVID pandemic has both delayed and moved the tournament to UAE in the current year. Wikipedia says that this is the most-watched Twenty 20 tournament in the world and the second-best paying sporting league globally.(link)

What are the specialties of the IPL tournament. It has had its share of scandals, scams, match-fixing cases, betting cases (betting in a game banned in India) and even Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings had to be suspended from the tournament for 2 consecutive years. One of the IPL heads who led IPL in its formative years is an alleged economic offender and is still at large having sought asylum in UK.

The Cricket tournament has had a tumultuous journey over the years, but still attracts addicted followers and ardent cricket lovers. Of course people from the old school still dismiss it as a big tamasha and not worth watching. Die-hard traditional cricket lovers continue to blame this auctioning of cricketers as nothing but cattle sale in our village backyards and cannot digest it as an offshoot of the modern evolution of the game as a business.

But all this has not diminished the viewership of the tournament over the TV. It is one big entertainment India enjoys as a cricket frenzy nation. TVs that have seen their ad revenues dwindling due to the pandemic have been resurrected by this tournament. Even though the public is not allowed to view these matches in the stadium. the telecast has added spice by inserting the artificial crowd roar, noise, trumpeting, jingles, etc. to make TV viewing lively and energetic. Perhaps the players on the field miss these mesmerising crowd roars in Indian stadiums egging them to perform better on the field. Some of the first week games which ended in a tie spilling over to Super overs have been a great exhibition for the game of Cricket.

Pandemic has bowled a googly at the economy, but IPL has partially offset its impact on the businesses by reviving the enthusiasm and the fun-filled colorful spirit of this cricket-loving country.With festive time just around the corner, hope this mood of optimism and enthusiasm catch up with the rest of the economy also.

I hear somebody murmuring COVID evolved from bats but IPL is played with bats wielding batsmen only.Pandemic is now Padnemic!!

Covid, Cricket and Character!

 Cricket has weathered many a winter and smothered many a vagary as a gentleman's game. Cricket was played during Spanish flu times also and UK's Wisden has not recorded any disruption in the progress of the cricket season in 1918 and 1919. But Cricket was severely restricted during World war 1 when all the major cricket playing nations were involved in the war.Cricket was also played less during World War II since England was involved in the war in full measure. But during all these periods of distress, Cricket was played in India with the least disruptions.

In fact, Wisden which has recorded death of English cricketers during World War 1 and 2 in all cricket playing nations , has not even mentioned one indian cricketer dying during Spanish flu days.This has to be seen in the light of total death toll of 17 million who died in india during Spanish flu years.

So even in 1918 and during World wars everybody around the world believed that India could somehow manage and survive humanitarian crises.

But this Covid 19 apart from being a dangerous pandemic , has also become a statistician's delight. of course not as enjoyable as cricket statistics. But still there is a everyday scorecard and the top states are vying with each other to remain on top with highest Covid 19 nos. Tracking, Tracing , Testing and Treating has given huge opportunities for multifold statistics and different tools to be employed across the country and the globe.

there are 3 day moving average, 5 day average, 7 day moving averages of tested, positive, discharged, active, deaths etc.etc. and colorful graphs of percentage growths of each one of them which compete with each other for eyeball grabs.

All the news channels have a separate ticker like in a Cricket match and hour to hour scores update pushes up your BP and make you a Covid patient , if not one already. Many people have stopped seeing news reporting in any channel and if they see one by mistake wait with bated breath,holding their chests with clenched fists as if hearing an India scorecard in a World cup cricket match.

Of course, the statisticians, epidemiologists, virologists give dire prediction every 15 days constantly reminding us that Covid nos. will surge and there will be a deluge in the next two months and this has been going on for the last 4 months.They have been predicting wildly exaggerated nos. and some statisticians can track all these predicted nos. of various agencies and give out the comparisons with the actuals. Such comparisons can provide another play with graphs, colours etc.

In all this round-robin play what is missing is character.Only few have been able to hold their forte not to rock the boat and rattle the gullible.Like lenders and banks looking for people with character to lend ,this pandemic has given a clarion call to those with character to come to the rescue. You can find people with capital, capacity to repay but finding a person with Character ,which is willingness to repay, is difficult. Character being  a rare commodity in these days of rising NPAs,  Bankers will nod their heads in agreement with me. In Cricket also we have seen people like Rahul Dravid, the Wall, VVS Lakshman, who have displayed great character to steady the ship, in crisis situations. Cricket captains like Mike Brearley of England, Pataudi and Dhoni of india, have shown stoic demeanour in the face of dire situations while leading their Teams. But a World cup winning cricket captain Imran Khan is the PM of Pakistan during this pandemic.But like in his heydays he is spitting venom at his rivals even outside the cricket arena. Is Cricket not making PM ,a gentleman? 

However,  I am not losing hope since our PM, himself, is a man who displays great Character even if he has not played cricket and is known to have sold & served Tea perhaps even during Tea breaks while others were busy playing Test Cricket!!

Be cautious and there is no need to spread fear and panic about both Covid and Economy! Drink hot Tea and take good rest!