Covid, Cricket and the CWG
Written on September 18th, 2022 by {"login"=>"jcbphc21", "email"=>"f20181005@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in", "display_name"=>"Journal Club, BPHC", "first_name"=>"Journal Club", "last_name"=>"BPHC"}After years of waiting, Cricket is finally back in the Common Wealth Games (CWG) 2022. The Common Wealth Games were started in 1930, but it wasn’t until 1998 that cricket was introduced in the CWG. But the time consuming format of cricket has always caused troubles in its presence in huge sporting events like the CWG and the Olympics, thus cricket was discontinued after the 1998 edition of the CWG, but the shorter and quicker format of cricket – T20 has again allowed billions of cricket fans around the world to witness this beautiful game in the CWG. Unlike the 1998 edition, this time cricket in the CWG was exclusively for women. A total of 8 teams competed for the podium finish, the 8 teams were divided into 2 groups, with India in the same group as Australia, Barbados and Pakistan. India lost its opening match against Australia, but went on to win the remaining two matches to seal a spot in the semi-final against England. In a closely fought match, India finally came out victorious to reach the Finals of the Common Wealth Games 2022. The final was set, India versus Australia, Australia who had earlier defeated India in the group stage were clear favorites going into the final, where they again defeated India to clinch the gold medal. The final saw a great fight between the two sides, but it was followed by a controversial event, which had more people talking about it, than the final itself.
The day before the final, Australian cricketer Tahlia McGrath returned a positive Covid test. While everyone felt bad for the Aussie cricketer and thought she would have to miss the gold medal match, the CWG committee had some other plans. Following relaxations in the Covid norms in the United Kingdom, where the CWG were held, the CWG committee set up some very subjective rules in regard to a positive case in the tournament. The availability of a Covid positive player would depend on the decision of the CWG committee after a case-by-case study. The committee would take into consideration various factors such as severity of illness, how infectious the player is, and the sport played. The decision on McGrath’s availability took a long time and it wasn’t until the toss that both the teams got to know the decision of the committee that McGrath, despite being Covid positive was allowed to play, and even the toss had to be delayed by 15 minutes for the decision to be made. But obviously this decision led to a lot of controversy. Firstly, why would the committee care so much about a player that they even postponed the start of a match, we have seen players being disqualified in the past, for reporting just seconds late, but this time the play was delayed by the officials only, just so that they could accommodate a player. Secondly, there come the moral grounds, many viewers criticized the Australian side for fielding a Covid positive player, risking not only their but also the opponent team’s lives. Many justified the criticism saying that it was a team sport, and one player not playing wouldn’t have led to the disqualification of the Aussie side. More fuel to the fire was given by Australian player Megan Schutt saying, ”Obviously when you’re part of a game that’s so thrilling like that, that’s all you want to do and at the end screw it, if we get Covid, so be it.”. Schutt is being criticized for underestimating Covid, while millions of our loved ones have lost their lives to it. The situation in the CWG is completely opposite to what happened in the beginning of this year at the Australian Open where world number 1 Novak Djokovic was denied entry into Australia despite producing his Covid negative report before the authorities. He was not given entry on the grounds that he was not vaccinated. Though comparing two events which took place in different parts of the world at different times isn’t the most sensible thing to do, it still gives us moral grounds for comparison. If the Australian government is that worried about the Covid situation, why couldn’t it request its National Team not to play a particular player for a single match, who in the worst case scenario would still receive a silver medal. In the end, the reality is that she played. The question remains, would the result have been different if she would have not played, the most probable answer is NO, Australia would still have won as she had a little impact in the entire match, she bowled 2 overs giving away 24 runs, while scoring 2 runs in the 4 deliveries she faced. So, in the end the Australian team won, but India still managed to win a silver medal in the inaugural edition of women’s cricket in the CWG, which in itself is a great achievement.
Cricket isn’t the only sport where India was on the receiving end of a harsh call, as in the semi-final of women’s hockey which was coincidently against Australia, once more there was a controversial decision, where Australia despite missing a penalty in the penalty shootout were allowed to retake it. They provided the reason that there was a shot-clock error, but would the decision be the same had Australia converted its penalty is yet another question.
In the end, despite the controversial calls, India still managed to bag a medal in both of these sports, winning a silver and a bronze medal in the process. If we look back, there really isn’t anything that could have been done with these calls, as these committees are very quick to ban a player/team that protests against it. So we should, and have ended the tournament on a high note creating history and breaking records in various sports and especially in athletics. Now certain missed opportunities will be taken care of in the year 2026 when the twenty-third edition of the CWG returns in Victoria, Australia.