For a large number of players, the fate of the Indian Premier League (IPL) was of particular interest—and concern. For good reason too.
Certainly, the cancellation of the ICC (International Cricket Council) Twenty20 World Cup, which was to be played in Australia in October, was topmost on the minds of most cricket boards. After all, a large percentage of the revenues of many lesser cricketing nations comes from ICC events. But for the players themselves, and especially the biggest in the game, the IPL is where the money is; the rest of the cricket they play is worth supplementary income at best.
With the cancellation of the Twenty20 World Cup and a wider acceptance that life must go on even amid the pandemic, the question with regard to the IPL changed, to the collective relief of all concerned, from whether to where (to hold it). India was ruled out almost instantly. Aside from the near-impossible challenge of hosting such a tournament with any degree of medical safety was the bald truth that holding a two-month cricket party when the country was being ravaged by Covid, and so many lives and livelihoods had been irreparably broken, would make for bad optics.
The first balloon of hope that the IPL could be held away floated towards New Zealand, on the basis that it was the least affected by the pandemic among major cricket-playing nations. But what was going for New Zealand’s candidature as host was its relative isolation. It did not seem very probable that a tournament of this kind would be very welcome there or, perhaps even more compellingly, prove economically viable.
Sri Lanka too put its hand up, but more in hope than anything else. After all, getting two months of rain-free evenings at that time of the year in Sri Lanka (or in most parts of India, for that matter) was wishful thinking.
This story is from the August 17, 2020 edition of India Today.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the August 17, 2020 edition of India Today.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Grand Young Master
Seventeen-yearold D. Gukesh has become the youngest player to win the Candidates chess tournament
SPORTING SPIRIT
BADMINTON PLAYER ASHWINI PONNAPPA, 34, IS OFF TO HER THIRD OLYMPICS, THIS TIME WITH A NEW PARTNER, TANISHA CRASTO
PORTRAITS OF A PEOPLE
Etchings by the colonial Flemish artist F. Baltazard Solvyns are getting a new lease of life in an exhibition at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai
Centennial Man
A seminal exhibition of K.G. Subramanyan's works in his birth centenary year at Emami Art, Kolkata takes an imaginative and immersive curatorial approach
Rhythms of Nature
ARTIST AND MUSIC COMPOSER GINGGER SHANKAR'S LATEST SINGLE COMBINES SOUTH INDIAN MUSIC WITH INUIT THROAT SINGING
SEARCHING FOR THE SOUND
Kashmiri musician Faheem Abdullah’s debut album Lost; Found is a collaborative effort
FOUND IN TRANSLATION
With its excellent translations, Songs of Tagore makes Rabindrasangit accessible to the non-Bengali reader
Of Freedom and Friendship
T.C.A. RAGHAVAN'S CIRCLES OF FREEDOM FOLLOWS THREE YOUNG MUSLIMS DRAWN INTO THE FREEDOM STRUGGLE
The Razor's Edge
Salman Rushdie's Knife is an eloquent, first-person account of the horrific attack on him. It's also a love story
THE LAST-MILE PUSH
The India Today Smart Money Financial Summit had top experts discussing how technology could be leveraged to widen the reach of personal finance tools