It’s been a month since the last international cricket match took place. Australia and New Zealand faced each other at Sydney cricket ground on the 13th of March. Australia won that match comfortably by 71 runs electing to bat first. It was the only international match that was held in closed doors as other scheduled matches were either cancelled or suspended. There has been no international cricket since but domestic matches were still held as per usual under closed doors like PSL (Pakistan Super League) which had reached its eliminatory stages but then had to be suspended due to obvious reasons.
It’s the 16th of April now (as the time of writing of this article) and with no knowledge of the end of the pandemic in sight, it’s hard to say what the future of cricket would be like.
Cricket has been effected by the pandemic like any other sport with major tournaments like PSL and IPL having been suspended and with the bilateral series being either re-scheduled or cancelled. IPL was the biggest loser in this scenario.
IPL is the richest cricket league in the world with foreign players opting to play in the league then playing for their national team. IPL is easy money for international players as they earn millions of dollars in just a couple of months.
The players are so dependent on this league as very less or no other international matches are scheduled during the time when IPL is being held because the biggest stars are busy playing in the league.
With the foreign players, the Indian players are also at the disadvantage as the Indian cricket board (BCCI) does not allow their players to participate in any other league around the world so they are only allowed to participate in IPL and with that being suspended until further notice, the players have no cricket nowadays.
IPL is given more media and social media attention then any other league in the world with big names like Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne making their own “Best IPL XI” teams in the past.
Domestic leagues were of more importance this year as the 7th edition of the World T-20 has been scheduled to take place this year from October in Australia after a gap of 4 years.
As October is still far away, no decision has been taken on it uptil now but the picture would get clearer in the upcoming months to decide the tournament’s future. World T20 was the most important tournament this year and for its preparation, the domestic tournaments too but COVID-19 has halted every major sports event this year including Olympics which have been postponed by a year.
The pandemic has caused more than 135,000 deaths and there have been more than 2 million registered cases as of now.
With this ongoing global emergency, it is hard to say whether the remaining scheduled cricket matches of the year and other sport events will happen or get re-scheduled or be suspended. So the sports world has a bleak future this year.
Thankyou and i will keep on writing articles!!
Good Read Article on current Crick situation, best of luck Abdullah