Mumbai Cricket Association Asks Chief Minister To Allow Sport To Return, Says Thousands Of Careers On Hold

The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) wants the sport to resume in the city, asking the chief minister for a plan that would allow the thousands of athletes who put their cricket careers on hold to be able to return.

The MCA wrote a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray asking for a plan for the sport to be played again, noting that people need to learn to live with the coronavirus. As the Mumbai Mirror noted, the letter asked the government to provide a blueprint for the sport to return and for guidelines that it would enforce for all players.

“As the governing body for cricket, we’ve followed all the directions, notifications of the government and will continue to do so in future,” the letter read.

“At the same time, we’ve to understand that there are thousands of players who are anxiously waiting to get back to cricketing activities and pursue their careers. They have been patiently waiting for this pandemic to get over. However, it seems we have to learn to live with the virus.”

Cricket has been on hold since late March when the city instituted lockdown measures to control the spread of the coronavirus. The MCA noted that it supports all of the measures put in place by the government, but it now wants a plan to be able to return.

Across the world, there have been major variances regarding which leagues have resumed play and which ones remain on hiatus. Some low-contact sports like auto racing and golf have been back for weeks, but more high-impact ones like basketball remain trickier. In the United States, the NBA has a plan to resume the end of the regular season and playoffs next month, but there is still uncertainty given the spike in coronavirus cases in Florida, where the league is set to play.

There has been plenty of uncertainty surrounding the return of cricket in India. The India Premier League has been eyeing a potential return around September, but it had been waiting for an official announcement of when the T20 World Cup would be held. As India.com reported, Cricket Australia had announced that it was “unrealistic” to expect the T20 World Cup to take place this year, leading to greater hope that the IPL will be able to return.

But it’s still not clear on whether the IPL would actually be able to take place in India. There are offers from both UAD and Sri Lanka to host the season if it can’t take place in India.

It’s also unclear when cricket activities could resume in Mumbai.