The deadly outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic over the last two months has severely affected the cricket, leading the world cricket economy to fall very badly with the cancellations and postponements of all cricketing events across the world.
The COVID-19 pandemic still continues to wreak havoc all over the world to increase worry about the financial state of the cricket boards across the world and if cricket remains absent from the calendar for the next few months, it can certainly cause the risk of a massive economic and financial failure.
The ongoing global crisis would make it really difficult for the most vulnerable boards including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe, and Pakistan to survive without the game.
Recently, former Pakistan captain-turned-commentator Ramiz Raja also admitted that the cricket boards cannot survive for long without resuming cricket due to the ongoing Coronavirus crisis.
Raja said on his Youtube channel, “Cricket fans are starved now and the coronavirus pandemic has brought life to a standstill but I don’t think cricket boards can survive for long like this. They can’t continue to pay out salaries and expenses without having cricket activities it would be disastrous for them.”
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While Cricket Australia has already decided to stand down almost 80 percent of its staff, Raja urged the Pakistan Cricket Board to hold talks with other associations to find a way to play the sport behind closed doors, as it would be “disastrous” to pay out “salaries and expenses without having cricket activities”.
The cricket pundit added, “I would also urge the Pakistan Cricket Board to think on these lines and hold talks with other boards to see how cricket activities can be resumed even behind closed doors. The PCB can take the first step in initiating this conversation.”
Raja signed off by saying, “Any cricket board, no matter how rich, cannot keep paying salaries in a perpetual lockdown situation. We need dialogue and planning to start cricket again. If fans cannot attend then holding it behind closed doors is an option.”
Noteworthy, the fast-spreading disease has already infected over 2.6 million people while killed over 1.8 lakh people worldwide so far.
(With PTI Inputs)
