Cricket Can Resume With Lesser Crowd Maintaining Social Distancing Instead Of Filling Entire Stadium

Since World War II, the novel coronavirus pandemic has caused the largest disruption in sports world, with the spectators waiting hand-folded for their favourite sports to resume. 2020 was supposed to be a year of marquee sports events. Besides the regular Wimbledon, Formula One Grand Prix, Indian Premier League (IPL), which are contested every year; marquee showpiece events such as the Olympics and 2020 World Cup were slated to take place this year.

The fate of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo has been decided. While it the capital city of Japan was supposed to welcome athletes from across the globe, its airport now only carries the hoarding and banners of the marquee events with pin-drop silence due to the pandemic situation, as the global event has been postponed to next year.

The fate of 2020 T20 World Cup, however, still hangs in the balance. The event is slated to take place in October with 15 teams. The global governing council will have to arrange logistics days before the tournament starts and the pandemic situation only makes it further difficult to make the arrangements. Moreover, a marquee event played behind closed-doors, will be a big loss for the board even though health and safety has been given the foremost priority.

Matches can be played with limited crowds instead of full-house

Bundesliga has returned behind closed doors with the Premier League expected to take the same route next week. The substitutes in the Bundesliga caught eyes when they were spotted sitting a drift off each other maintaining social distancing at the stadium.

If cricket boards wish to minimalize loss they have incurred due to a halt in live matches during the pandemic situation, the way the substitutes resorted to social distancing, can be taken as a cue. In fact, a stadium with a capacity of filling 60,000 spectators can accommodate only 5,000 fans maintaining social distancing.

Win-Win situation for cricket boards and fans

If limited crowd is allowed in a stadium and social distancing is maintained it will be a win-win situation for the boards and fans. At the outbreak of Covid-19 situation, where fans have failed to watch live matches, can resume watching their favourite sport while boards can profit from the sell of tickets.

However, all said and done, a lot of thing should be taken into consideration here. For the fans to enter or exit the stadium there will be a large queue which is not a likely measure to be taken during the pandemic situation. 5000 spectators mean arrangement of food for them. Specific measures should be announced for the fans to bring their food from their own homes to cut-short the chaos.

(Editor’s note: This is an opinion article and has no link to any proposals or actions taken by the cricket board or governing council. It can be taken as a suggestion in the current pandemic situation otherwise)