How pandemic will change the sporting world
As governments around the globe slowly start easing restrictions and lockdowns and bring some sort of semblance to a normal life, the sporting world too are tying up their shoe laces to a possible return to action.
The Bundesliga, Germany’s topflight, will restart their campaign this Saturday, while the English Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and many other football leagues around the planet are mulling dates in June.
The UFC, the hugely popular Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) event, was one of the first to resume when the interim lightweight title fight between Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje played out in the United States last Saturday.
As we still continue to grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic, players have already started training in some of the leagues, but with social distancing measures in place.
The British government, on Wednesday, issued guidelines to athletes and players on measures to be taken when returning to training. But looking at the larger picture, we are treading into the unknown and quite possibly, sports might not be the same as we all know it.
At Yangju in South Korea, it was virtually pin-drop silence as professional women’s golf made its return on Thursday. Everyone entering the Lakewood Country Club were screened and there were no spectators accompanying the golfers and the usual banter in the pairings were missing with players maintaining a distance of two metres.
They wore masks before and after their rounds but were given the option to use or not use it during the round. They couldn’t touch the pin without gloves and had to eat their meals without any company.
As far as football is concerned, pitches will be disinfected along with the corner flags. Players will have to maintain distancing and not indulge in groups. They won’t have access to locker rooms and dining areas, with no showers. The players would have to return in the same training gear back to their homes. More importantly, players have been told to avoid tackling, the most important ingredient on what football is based.
Far away in Latin America, where football is more than a passion, the players will have to do away with the age old tradition of rival players swapping shirts at the end of a game, as well as spitting and kissing the ball.
The Bundesliga has told players to avoid celebrating a goal in groups during a match.
In cricket, according to the new British guidelines, players have been given the option to opt out of a return to elite training. Meanwhile, bowlers could be stopped from using their saliva and sweat on the ball to get swing with the Australian Institute of Sport already having issued the guidelines Down Under. It means that artificial substances might be allowed to be used for the first time in cricket to counter the problem.
Australian ball manufacturer Kookaburra have already started work on a wax applicator which will aid bowlers during this time.
There have been talks of creating a ‘bubble’ in these pandemic times with players and athletes cooped up in hotels on-site. But then, perhaps that is the need of the hour.
Having said that, one shudders to think how a post-Covid world will look like from the glasses of an athlete or player and even the fan.
Fan engagement, among many other things like tackling, swapping shirts, celebrating a goal with teammates and fans, having a go at a corner stick, yelling at the referee or arguing with an opponent, are the essence of sport.
Those and the emotions, joy and despair, is what makes sport, sport. Without them, it might just turn into a world of robots.
Hope it doesn’t come to that.