The IPL must end immediately—its continuance amid India’s COVID crisis is grotesque

01 May 2021
The final of the IPL is scheduled for 30 May, at the newly-christened Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Epidemiologists predict that the second wave will hit its peak in May, with the daily number of cases and deaths likely to far exceed the current numbers. It would be entirely in line with Modi’s Nero-esque record of tone-deaf brazenness to let the spectacle go on, even as corpses pile up ever higher.
SAM PANTHAKY / AFP / Getty Images
The final of the IPL is scheduled for 30 May, at the newly-christened Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Epidemiologists predict that the second wave will hit its peak in May, with the daily number of cases and deaths likely to far exceed the current numbers. It would be entirely in line with Modi’s Nero-esque record of tone-deaf brazenness to let the spectacle go on, even as corpses pile up ever higher.
SAM PANTHAKY / AFP / Getty Images

On 26 April, Pradeep Magazine, one of the country’s most respected and independent-minded cricket journalists, wrote on Twitter: “The silence of Indian cricketers is too loud. Are they waiting for a cut and paste advisory from the top?” Magazine’s observation was unfailingly accurate. The collective void of silence from Indian cricketers in the midst of a raging pandemic has been the mirror opposite of the alacrity with which they waded into the issue of the farmers’ protests in February—a subject most of them did not even fully grasp—posting farcical, imitative tweets at the behest of the current regime. Meanwhile, India’s millionaire cricketers have continued to accumulate fortunes through their participation in the Indian Premier League, whose success has been built on the untiring devotion of the world’s largest cricket-watching public, even as that public is literally gasping for breath.

For observers of both Indian cricket and the trajectory of Indian society and state under Narendra Modi, the silence of Indian cricketers—even as this second wave of the coronavirus ravages the country—is not surprising. Ace survivors never break the law of omertà in a mafia state. The Indian cricketer, largely reared in the self-serving ethos of the Indian middle class and having risen to the top in the uncertain shadow of vindictive and politically powerful cricket administrators, remains a particularly meek breed.

The silence of these otherwise individualistic superstars in this case has everything to do with the identity of the de facto boss of Indian cricket: Jay Shah, the undistinguished progeny of the second-most powerful man in the land. Despite having no prior notable involvement in the game, Jay Shah was airlifted into one of the most important positions in cricket by sole virtue of being the son of the union home minister. (Sourav Ganguly, officially the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, is little more than an inconsequential figurehead.)

Vaibhav Vats is an independent writer and journalist. His work has appeared in the New York Times and Al Jazeera, among other publications. He is working on a book on Hindu nationalism and the making of India’s Second Republic. 

Keywords: Indian Premier League COVID-19 public health cricket Narendra Modi
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