The former India opener and cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir said social distancing may be easier in cricket compared to other sports.
Gautam Gambhir. (Photo: IANS)
Former India opener Gautam Gambhir stated that the cricketer would have to “live with the coronavirus” as a treatment of it is yet to be discovered and he believed that cricket cannot be stopped till that unforeseeable time. The outbreak of the pandemic has brought all forms of cricketing fixtures into a standstill, including the international ties and the Indian Premier League (IPL).
“Players and everyone else need to live with this virus; probably they have to get used to it that there is a virus and that it will be around. Players might end up catching it, and you got to live with it,” said Gambhir on Star Sports show Cricket Connected as quoted by IANS.
Gambhir said social distancing may be easier in cricket compared to other sports and presented it as a case for cricket to make a comeback. He further added that the “sooner” cricketers around the globe accept to live with the virus, the “better” it will be for them.
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“Social distancing and other rules may not be easy for any sport to maintain. You can still manage to do it with cricket, but how will you do it in football, hockey and other sports as well. So, I think you just have to live with it, probably the sooner you accept it, the better it is,” he said.
Meanwhile, The IPL 2020, which was scheduled to be played from March 29 was earlier postponed to April 15 before it was suspended till further notice.
However, there have been various media reports suggesting BCCI is mulling alternative windows like August-September and October-November to stage the 2020’s edition of the cash-rich tournament. But all of the speculations lack an official backing as the fate of IPL continues to hang in doubt.
Cricket around the globe is suffering a similar situation as ICC and all other major boards have not made public the plan for the game’s return.
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