CRICKET IN TIMES OF COVID19

Right now, cricket doesn't matter

by Telford Vice • Last updated on Sat, Mar 14, 2020, 07:26 PM

Several countries have stopped sports activities in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak © Getty

"Isn't it just Flu!!!!! #JustAsking", Michael Vaughan asked - or did he ask, considering the five exclamation points in lieu of a question mark - of his 1.2-million Twitter followers on Wednesday. Also on Wednesday, the World Health Organisation declared the Coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. But as a former England captain and a Yorkshireman, and a thoroughly nice man besides, surely Vaughan knows better.

Clearly, life as a professional cricketer followed seamlessly by life as a professional cricket pundit does not prepare you for real life. Instead, it makes you think you are free to flaunt your cosseted ignorance dangerously in public without consequence and expect to be indulged. Because, well, you're famous and charming and everybody loves you.

Another Twitter user, one Amar Godbole, wondered whether Vaughan's offering was "appropriate for a MBE". Vaughan pounced on that half-volley with a snotty: "OBE actually." What an idiot. Who does the man think he is? Geoffrey Boycott in training?

Vaughan doesn't deserve defending, but it bears pointing out that the Coronavirus situation wasn't as serious then as it has since become, as evidenced by the growing legion of cancellations and postponements of all manner of events and gatherings around the world. In some places, that includes weddings and funerals. New York's Broadway theatres are dark. So you won't find any quantifying of the size of the problem here. Because who knows how much bigger it will become between the writing of the paragraph you are reading now and this article's closing sentence? Yes, Michael darling, it is that bad. And it's going to get worse. Much worse. Rather than bemoan how much has been called off, we should be demanding to know why any kind of public happening is going ahead.

If you're in reasonably good health and you contract the virus, which is carried and transmitted by bodily fluids, you are entirely likely to recover fully. Vast swathes of death stalking the planet is not the danger. The issue is vast numbers of the planet's population simultaneously self-isolating to avoid contracting the virus or to avoid passing it on. How will we run our lives without human beings? With no-one collecting the trash, the disease - and others - will only spread further and faster. Police will not be on the street. Nothing that stops working - the electricity supply, the plumbing, the banking system, the internet - will be repaired. People who make and sell face masks, hand sanitiser and toilet paper are no doubt quietly counting their additional earnings. But what are they going to buy when all the shops are shut and drivers are no longer delivering online purchases? Good luck taking that expensive holiday in a time of travel bans and visa freezes.

Cricket? Who could possibly care about cricket at a time like this? Some do, of course. They're of that class of weirdo who can't see the forest of match-fixing for the trees of crooks like Hansie Cronje and Mohammad Azharuddin. They're the people who lament rain stopping a match being played deep in a drought. They're the unfortunates who have taken a shot of cortisone to the conscience. Cricket tragics are to be avoided even in ideal circumstances, but right now they should be smacked upside the head. With a gloved hand, of course.

Enough already with the dismay at the empty stands that are the backdrop to many of the matches that have not been scrapped. Enough, too, with people proclaiming "a dark day" when games are cancelled. The relevant truth is that players, umpires, scorers, groundstaff and the attendant media involved in the matches still going ahead, even behind closed doors, are all potentially flouting attempts to control the spread of the virus. It is criminally irresponsible that those games are being played.

Cricket does not matter today, and it won't tomorrow, next week or next month. Neither does anything else that, without a defendable reason, puts people in the path of this nastiness. We cannot allow any minds to be "taken off" the crisis. It is all that matters, and that won't change before it is contained. If we want cricket to matter again we need to stop the world or as much of it as possible. It's time to separate the tragics from the tragedy.

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Right now, cricket doesn't matter

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