The Indian Pandemic league that replaced the IPL

The fans of the Indian premier league are a disappointed lot. The league got postponed midway through the season. And to the utter shock of everybody, the Indian Premier League got replaced by the Indian Pandemic League. The Indian pandemic league is about the matches being played by the politicians trying to shrug off their responsibilities. Few are ducking the bouncers while the rest are playing a defensive game. The ones who should take the blame for the current scenario are trying to play on the front foot though without much success.

Surprisingly, both the leagues started at the same time. The one people loved ended soon while the one people hated still carries on. The Indian premier league was played in front of a vacant stadium but was telecasted live on TV. On the other hand, the Indian pandemic league is being played in front of the whole country. People are watching with a lot of hope that maybe one of the teams will play a winning game that will help them save their loved ones. Alas, none of the team has played that match-winning game to date.

So, let’s review the performance of the teams in the Indian pandemic league and see how each one of them is performing.

BCCI or the BCGI – the Board of Central Government of India

The BCCI is the one who is responsible for running the cricket affair in India. Similarly, It’s the Central government or the BCGI that is responsible for running the affairs of the country. The BCCI defied the criticisms and went ahead organizing IPL when the second wave just started. Playing cricket matches in empty stadiums didn’t make sense commercially. However, a huge television audience across the country forced it to go ahead with the tournament. There was always a risk of players contracting the virus and this is what happened. As a result, BCCI had to suspend the tournament midway.

The BCGI also made a similar mistake. It went ahead with elections in 5 states throwing the social distancing norms to the wind. It further added fuel to fire by permitting an annual Pilgrimage festival during Kumbh at Haridwar. The result was that the second wave of covid spread much faster than expected. BCCI still had the option of postponing the tournament but BCGI never had such a privilege. It couldn’t postpone the disaster which saw many people losing their loved ones since April.

The Indian pandemic league, the BCGI, and the teams

The Indian pandemic league started in April. The first week saw the onset of fresh cases and by the 10^th of April, the pandemic spiraled out of control. What started as few cases suddenly boomeranged into a crisis. Hospitals were flooded with patients in hundreds. The entire healthcare system got so overwhelmed with the infected people that it just crashed. From Oxygen shortage to ICU beds with ventilators, from Remdesivir to ambulances, it seemed everything was scarce.

The BCGI captain or the PM of the country was busy ducking the bouncers thrown at him by the patients and their families. The media was busy spinning their questions more articulately. However, it seems the captain had no answers to the web of spin in which he was caught. The crowd was surprised to see how the captain of their country was always an in-form batsman who had lost his golden touch. The worst part was that he was neither scoring runs nor getting out.

On the runner’s end was another of PM’s partner, the vice-captain or the home minister. Both the captain and his vice-captain have played many innings together winning a lot of matches. 

The country had huge expectations from the vice-captain especially in a scenario where the captain failed to score runs. They expected him to lead from the front answering people’s questions. With the entire government machinery at his disposal, he was expected to look into problems like oxygen shortage to non-availability of beds. Alas, that never happened. It seems both the captain and the vice-captain were playing a losing game.

The Delhi DareDevils or the Delhi Dumb Devils

The Delhi team has been captained by none other than Shri Arvind Kejriwal and his vice-captain Manish Sisodia. Both the players have a huge media presence and are visible on every platform from television to newspapers and radio. However, to date, they have not won a single IPL. And now with the Indian pandemic league, they have failed badly on all fronts from batting, bowling to fielding.

The team didn’t have answers to the SOS messages of the citizens of Delhi. They were just ducking the queries on shortage of oxygen supply to bed availability at hospitals. The two batsmen were out of breath and didn’t have a clue on how to handle the dead bodies queuing up at cremation grounds.

The central government was busy throwing bouncers at Delhi Dumb Devils blaming it for the lack of preparation of medical facilities. The high court on the other hand was fielding questions to the Delhi government on its lack of preparedness. The Delhi government didn’t have an answer to the lack of oxygen supply oxygen to hospitals leading to the death of many patients. Delhi Dumb Devils were not match-fit and their lack of preparedness led to the loss in the Indian pandemic league

The Kolkata Wheelchair Riders of the Indian pandemic league

It’s beyond doubt that Mamta Banerjee’s government has emerged as one of the top runners in the Indian pandemic league. The BCGI wanted to nominate a new team representing the East in the league. However, the team led by the captain on a wheelchair was just not ready to give up so easily. Hugely popular with the Bengalis the KWR team overshadowed the BCGI team on all fronts.

The BCGI team dropped catches in most of the constituencies and gave too many seats to Kolkata Wheelchair riders. Most of its batsman failed to open an account despite having an impressive batting line-up. And when they got a chance to bowl to KWR, they ended up bowling no-balls and wides.

The Mumbai Indians or the Mumbai Sainiks

The Sainiks have won the IPL tournament several times, but they have proved that they are not invincible. Captained by Uddhav Thackeray, the Mumbai Sainiks failed to retain the trophy. The team despite having two towering personalities – the NCP and the Congress failed to control the spread of the virus.

The team’s performance has been below par at the Indian pandemic league. It was because of their lackadaisical attitude that the virus got an opportunity to score a massive lead. The disease spread not only in Mumbai and Pune but also in smaller cities and spiraled out of control.  The Captain ran out of strategy to control the spread.

Once the pandemic spread the blame game of the state not getting its due share of Oxygen from BCGI started. Apart from this it also complained of not receiving its share of vaccinations. Meanwhile, the people in Maharashtra witnessed the killer wave taking the lives of their loved ones.

It’s time the organisers of the Indian pandemic league come forward and accept the responsibility of putting across a tournament that took people’s life. They should show some compassion to the people and spell out their strategy on how they will control the Indian pandemic.

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