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The 2019 coronavirus has been on the news for a few months now and it’s becoming a big concern in many affected countries. There are now over 100,000 confirmed cases related to this virus and over 3,000 people have already died due to causes related to this virus.
People are now advised to take precautionary measures to prevent or slow down the spread of the virus and it is no different in the sports industry. In the past few weeks, many sporting events have already been called off or moved to the latter part of the year.
Many leagues and associations have already released statements on how closely they are monitoring the situation so that they can make a decision when it comes to going through the scheduled matches in the next few weeks.
The Indian Premier League or the IPL is one of the most popular sports tournaments or leagues out there. It has to be in the top 10 list of the most awaited sporting event worldwide. It’s not just participated by Indian teams but also from teams from countries like Pakistan and Australia.
The IPL is scheduled to happen just a few weeks away and many people and health officials are already expressing their concerns about it. Sit is reported that some of the league’s stakeholders are already looking at the possibility of going through the matches with closed doors.
A meeting between the Board of Control for Cricket in India or the BCCI and the health ministry is to take place next week. The meeting is still going to push through even if BCCI’s president, Sourav Ganguly already said that everything is on schedule for the IPL matches. According to him, all 56 matches involving nine cities will still push through the finals.
Ganguly also emphasized that cricket matches all over the world still appear to be pushing through. The England team is already in Sri Lanka for their matches. South Africa is currently in India and other county teams are going to other countries like the UAE and Abu Dhabi to play.
It’s still hard to say how the meeting will affect the upcoming IPL. What’s sure is that wagering on this particular event will most likely not be affected. IPL betting sites can be easily accessed by many punters without having to go outside and so there’s no problem with that.
It’s most likely the opportunity for players to play in front of thousands of spectators and the fans to see their favorite teams play live are what’s on the line. One of the companies that are tied up with the IPL talked about this issue.
The executive company said, “There will obviously be concern about the health impact when 30,000 to 40,000 fans are in one stadium for so many hours for the next seven weeks across the country. One way out is to follow what many other countries are doing in Europe and what people are planning to do in the US, that is, to have closed-door matches with no ticket sales.”
It does appear like the IPL is taking its time when it comes to making any move about the issue concerning the coronavirus. This is unlike how other sports events in the world are already canceled due to this.
Switzerland has already imposed a ban on any events that involve over a thousand people until March. This includes any sporting events. Italy has done the same thing and the ban in the country will last until early April.
The Olympics that is set to take place in Japan is also threatened by the 2019 COVID, but there is still no announcement regarding the cancelation of this event. The NBA is already on discussions about barring fans from live games. What they have started to cancel are the cancelations of the European basketball matches.
The Premier League is already expecting that some of the matches may have to be held closed doors. The same goes for FIFA and FA. While this solution doesn’t sound ideal, this may be a better way to prevent the spread of the Virus.
Overall, Ganguly thinks that special arrangements will have to be made if it comes to it. He said, “We will take all precautions. I don’t know what the exact measures will be yet because the medical team is still discussing them.”
For now, the fans and even the teams involved will still have to wait for the meeting that will be held next week about this to know what will become of the IPL through this coronavirus scare.
