600 millions reasons aren’t enough to keep IPL going

New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, left, and Australia’s David Warner on a flight between IPL games in India. Picture: Instagram

It is not difficult to guess or decrypt the real reason the BCCI continues hosting the IPL in the midst of the gravest crisis India has encountered since independence 73 years ago.

The IPL broadcast rights are worth about $600 million a year and the BCCI could potentially field a claim for that amount if the IPL is curtailed or cancelled. There would be many millions of dollars of other revenue, too, which would take a hit.

In all the six cities where the IPL is supposed to be held, Covid infections and deaths are notching up daily while the public battles in desperation to source hospital beds, oxygen and ventilators.

At a time like this, is it acceptable that already scarce and stretched resources of the government are monopolised, diverted or reserved for the BCCI’s marquee tournament and it’s elite participants?

The resources include police, ambulances, doctors, hospital rooms, ICUs and medicines. Those in the bio-secure bubble are tested every couple of days.

The world understands and commiserates with India’s exploding Covid situation. Since the IPL began three weeks ago, an SCG capacity stadium full of people have already lost their lives to the scourge and these are merely official figures.

If obstinacy and hubris is dictating the decision to continue holding IPL games, that is as callous as the other possible purpose: money

Perhaps, the Indian government — through the BCCI, whose remote control it holds — does not want the dimensions of the Covid issue to alarm the Indian public? By cancelling the IPL, the government will be admitting that there is a problem. A problem that it cannot handle and has not handled well. Loss of face, credibility and all that.

There are about 40 Australians still participating in the IPL, including about 13 cricketers. The rest are coaches, support staff and match officials.

All it will take is an accidental breach of the current IPL bio bubble and there will be panic, international condemnation and a risk of potentially serious health consequences. Imagine what would happen if the iconic Virat Kohli or Steve Smith contract Covid and god forbid, have complications? Those unheeded calls to shut down the IPL which are loud now, will be insistent and irresistible.

Leading Sydney spinal surgeon Dr Ashish Diwan, a Director of Spine Service at St George Hospital, has worked in the Indian medical system for over a decade. He holds concerns for an Australian colleague who is working in the IPL, but has been reassured by that colleague that Australian High Commissioner to India, Barry O’Farrell, is in touch with Steve Smith, regularly.

He opines that “maybe the IPL show acts as an effective distraction therapy for the suffering masses, but the bigger issue is whether the Australians should come back. Absolutely, and now. If even one of them needs to go to the hospital for any ailment, they will not be able to get appropriate care. The health system has collapsed.”

Diwan is hopeful that “we will have them back home soon”.

Last week a well-known former Australian cricketer told me about a close mate of his, a former Australian player who is currently in India, and is very nervous about the deteriorating situation and confining himself to self-imposed room quarantine as much as possible.

This ex-player knows there is a choice: return to Australia — and risk not being invited again — or shut up, suck it up and stick it out.

Perhaps, some Australian participants are concerned about the look of it all. Seen to be abandoning their franchises and India. Again, these are unprecedented times and these folks need to think of their personal safety and wellbeing first and last.

There are 8000 Australians of Indian origin stuck for several months in India, who cannot get out. Why should privileged cricket people who went to India to pursue their professions, presumably after a risk analysis, get prioritised? Is it fair and reasonable?

There are, of course, Indians who feel that the IPL should continue — mainly for entertainment reasons. Indians are either locked up due to quarantine regulations or largely immobile in their homes and would appreciate the opportunity of some joy that the “masala” cricket brings. This is after all a country where Test matches are scarcely patronised, but the pyjama game thrives.

I think that it is not merely incongruous and indulgent, but downright offensive to continue the celebratory IPL circus, a few kilometres away from the continuous smoke haze of funeral pyres and wails of distressed relatives mourning their loved ones. The optics are terrible, but the indifference and disrespect for India’s sick and dead is even worse.

The IPL/BCCI will probably make a grand gesture soon – a donation to the official (though, inscrutable) “PM CARES” fund to which Pat Cummins magnanimously donated $50,000. A donation of, say, $100 million would earn the BCCI public goodwill and be most welcome. But I don’t believe the problem in India right now is money. The lack of planning, vaccines, ventilators, oxygen, other medicinal stockpiles, hospital beds is glaring. These will not materialise immediately, though there are welcome signs that the government is now finally engaging in the task.

However, the IPL needs to stop dead in its tracks or be played elsewhere. The Australians need to return home. They fulfilled their contractual obligations in good faith and turned up, but catastrophic events have overtaken them. If the IPL and the BCCI don’t appreciate that, Cricket Australia must do some plain speaking and firmly retrieve them.

Many Indian-Australians underestimate the importance that Australians attach on personal safety, wellbeing and indeed, human life. When one comes from a vastly populated country, you do tend to take these things less seriously.

But now is not the time to risk it. Get them back.

Darshak Mehta OAM is an Indian expat businessman and chair of The Chappell Foundation who has a long association with Australian cricket