Coronavirus Vs IPL - No Contingency Plan Yet To Combat Threat Which Is Very Alarming

Coronavirus has cast an ugly shadow and the fear is rising among people. Those in charge of managing cricket India are aware as well. But, the IPL, which begins on March 29, has not contingency in place to combat the disease. The BCCI is yet to take any steps in the matter.

Several overseas players, umpires and match referees, commentators and international media and those who help with managing stuff add up to around 150 people. All of them shall be arriving before the competition begins.

"With the kind of global travel restrictions that are coming into effect, it is surprising that the BCCI hasn't yet sat down and started talking about it," sources told TOI.

However, there are those in Indian cricket who have been busy informally taking stock of the situation and say, "So far, what we've seen is South Asia has been resilient to it (the virus). We can only hope for the time being that any aberration is unlikely, at least for now."

The office-bearers of the board are scheduled to be in Mumbai this week and the matter will come up for further discussion.

"It's not just about people travelling to India. The overall business of IPL can take a direct or indirect hit. A lot of companies that advertise are facing supply chain issues. Just as an example, look at Vivo, the title sponsors. Will they manage to get enough phones to sell? Something as simple as that because everything and anything to do with China is shut," say those tracking developments.

"What BCCI has certainly identified so far is the problem at large. Even if a single player is found affected, everything around him, the entire ecosystem will be quarantined. One can imagine the scales and the risks attached to it. It's important to address the issue," a source added.

The developments come at a time when the Olympics minister in Japan, Seiko Hashimoto, has said the Japanese government "has the provision to stage the Games later" and that "the Tokyo 2020 Olympics could be postponed until the end of the year".

"When events of that magnitude have no choice but to take a call with such emergency, I guess the onus is all the more on other existing sports ecosystems to act fast," a source said.

But it is alarming that no steps have been taken. Perhaps some backup option would have been good and God forbid if something goes wrong, there will be a lot to answer for, which will be the least of our worries at that time.