With the resumption of sport, and the Pakistan team currently facing a possible first series defeat on British soil in a decade, the Pakistan Cricket Board is looking to the future and considering resuming the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in October. Reports indicate that the decision is nowhere near final, but it might just be supremely convenient to wrap up the series at this time.
Considerations such as the presence of the international commentating team in Pakistan ahead of our series with Zimbabwe series is one of the reasons, and with the Indian Premier League (IPL) also taking place side-by-side across the eastern border during the same period, the presence of international players close by might make it easy to invite them back. However, these two facets might make logistics easier, other factors might make things even more difficult.
The most obvious problem is of recommencing the matches with players that will be coming in from a country that is not doing well in corona-prevention efforts. India’s infections continue to rise, and if the IPL is being held there, any officials or players that come after their commitments to IPL should be handled very carefully. Two weeks of quarantine, constant testing and other safety measures must be used.
But beyond this, the question that really matters to most fans is whether they will be allowed to attend the contests taking place. Audiences and whether they should be allowed to attend live matches is an issue sports bodies all over the world are contemplating, but the safer option is to not allow any live audience for now; or if there are to be fans in attendance, it should be a very limited number, with safety measures adhered to.
Pakistan’s fight against corona has yielded positive results, but it is still important for us to be careful, because all it takes are a few slip-ups, for the spread to get unmanageable. Any decision we make in the next few months must be guided with the health of our citizens as a foremost priority.