It’s immoral for IPL show to go on now
IT WAS, even by the standards of this year’s Indian Premier League, a jawdropping moment. There yesterday was Aussie cricketer Chris Lynn, in the middle of a plea to his government to lay on a charter flight to get players out of the country at the end of this year’s tournament, revealing, matter- of- factly: ‘ We get vaccinated this week.’
Excuse me? The fittest, most protected young men, currently playing cricket in a bio- secure environment are jumping the vaccine queue in a Covid-ravaged country where thousands are dying because of a shortage of medical resources, not least jabs? Surely not?
As it turned out the next phase of India’s vaccination policy, which will be available to over 18s from Saturday, will only extend to home players rather than those overseas cricketers who are seemingly growing increasingly wary of playing on while all around them suffer.
I understand the suggestion that the IPL can provide a distraction to India’s cricket-mad population in such troubling times. And I appreciate that we were all grateful to West Indies, Pakistan and Australia for coming to England last summer when Covid rates here were high.
But this just seems different. Lynn’s comments smacked of entitlement and a lack of awareness of the absurdity of the richest competition in cricket carrying on in a country where millions are being denied basic medical facilities that could save their lives.
Sport has played a huge part in helping so many of us cope with the last year. But it increasingly feels like it will be morally wrong if the IPL show just goes on and on.