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What is the New Normal?
What is the New Normal? |
The world is going through unprecedented times. COVID-19 aka coronavirus attack has put the brakes on the world machinery. It has halted everything. Countries, states, counties, cities across the world are in a global lockdown. Shut down has been going on for weeks and months. The nature in which this virus transmits from human to human and community spread has warranted health officials, leaders and states and countries to take very strict measures to stop the spread and impacting human life and tragedies. “Social” distancing, personal hygiene procedures, quarantining oneself, contact tracing, testing, work from home, telehealth are not just buzzwords but the reality – a “New Normal”.
With thousands of businesses around the world having to close their doors, millions have lost their jobs. Large economies have come to a crawl. Government across the leading nations are having to pump in relief and stimulus money to keep these economies to survive. These kinds of measures have not spared any business – large or small. Restaurants, Movie theatres, Entertainment, Airlines, Hotels, Cruises, Salons, Stadiums, Gymnasiums have been “closed for business” to its loyal customers.
We in the sporting world have been devoid of live sports for weeks. Here in the United States NBA and then NCAA called off all its games early March when one of the basketball players got infected with this “invisible enemy”. Post that many sporting committees and bodies followed suite. The Summer Olympics supposed to take part in Tokyo has been postponed to 2021. IPL – India’s Premier League canceled its 2020 season. It was supposed to start end of March and all of us in the cricketing world look forward so much cheering and following our favorite teams and players. March has taken us backward instead of “springing us forward”. “March madness” has been truly “March MADNESS” minus the college basketball. Baseball season has been postponed indefinitely. For the first time in history American Football (NFL) Draft was conducted virtually. Sporting committees are getting together to make decisions to get us all out of this state to the “New Normal”. They are having to make decisions on whether to start play without any spectators or audience. Imagine empty stadiums, no loud noise, no cheers…. Some of us will say we will take anything, any live sports at this moment.
Here in Colorado our CCL (Cricket League) 2020 Season which usually starts middle of April (weather permitting) had to be postponed multiple times. The Executive Committee and the League Management Committee are faced with the same challenge. Keeping safety of the players, their supporters, family members the EC has been closely following the guidance given by the state and health officials. As of this writing the tentative plan has been to start beginning of June. As we await further updates from the Committee and the optimists in all of us want the season to start sooner so we can put on our uniforms, air and dust our kit bag, put on those shoes and team cap and head over to the pitch and huddle with our teammates, friends and shake hands or give them a high five – I have been thinking (in my long walks) what is the “New Normal” for us, for playing cricket in the framework of preventing the spread of this virus. What is the future way of playing this sport?
Let us look at few of these aspects and ask those questions and find some solution/answers so when we are ready to go out there, we can all be assured that we will be safe:
• Social Distancing: “maintaining 6 ft distance” – glad that the batsmen and bowler are 22 yards. Don’t think have seen too much forward short leg, having Silly point will sound a bit silly at this point. Wicket keeper standing up for spin bowling!!!?
• Team huddle during group exercise, huddle before the game, batting team sitting under the tent, post wicket celebration, post-game and victory huddle, happy hour celebration – what about these aspects of the game that we cherish?
• Wearing Masks: should this be made mandatory as we get to summer and then later in the fall when there are talks about resurgence of this vicious virus?
• Washing Hands & General Hygiene: we are all used to rubbing the sweat, spitting and shining the ball. It is part of the dynamics of the game. Should we educate the players or come up with some guidelines to govern the new way of playing this?
• Team huddle and 10 people or more rule: the current group gathering rule is 10 people and less. With two teams it takes us to 22+ (plus assuming some teams having the luxury of their 12th man ever showing up)
Of course, with the shrinking of the timeline the League planning committee and scheduler has to think about the formats, number of games and get agreements from clubs and their LMC members. Sitting and working from home, the general anxiety of what is happening in the world, constant snacking and lack of exercise either outside (because of weather being still cold with rain and snow) or inside (because of fitness centers and gyms being closed) am not sure about others but some of us would have put on few extra pounds ? and our fitness level may not be the best that the sport demands – should the league plan for shorter format games and more games this season?
Finally, on behalf of Colorado and our cricketing community as I leave with these thoughts in this article, I want to THANK all our health workers (especially those playing in our league) – our doctors, nurses, law enforcement officials who are fighting this “war” in the forefront and facing danger every day that go out to take care of the needy. Want to thank our small and medium business sponsors who over the years have supported us and whose businesses are impacted because of this pandemic. Hopefully when the season starts and we get to meet “22 yards across”, we get a chance to take a moment to thank all of them and help them out in meaningful and charitable way. With that I want to wish each one of you, your families close or away from you, your friends and relatives – “Stay Home, Stay Safe, Save Life”. Hope to see you all soon.
This article is on the CCL's FaceBook page too, so if you have questions or suggestions, please make sure to leave us your comments there.
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