The new year has arrived and so have vaccines. The dual dose had instilled a sense of optimism that things will magically change, fans will soon start flocking to stadiums, and there will be a semblance of normal in this new world. But while thousands of athletes around the world and organizers of major events are experimenting, the situation on the ground belies the hope that floats on the surface.
Reality hit hard when the first tennis Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open, was postponed for three weeks due to the pandemic. Immediately after that decision, Japan temporarily prevented athletes from entering the country due to the new variant of the coronavirus. And China imposed a travel ban on its athletes as the government, according to the Olympic Channel, took strict measures to prevent an increase in cases.
These developments are a reminder that while the world has bid farewell to 2020, the complications it saw will extend into 2021, meaning the sport might not be the same at least for the near future.
This is how some of the major events, which were affected last year due to the pandemic, will play out this year: conditions apply.
The Tokyo Olympics
Dates: July 23 to August 9
What is known for sure so far is that the opening ceremony will be shortened, athletes will be warned to arrive as late as possible and leave as soon as possible, their movement will be restricted within the Games Village, and the budget has been inflated in a pair. of a billion dollars. It is not known if there will be fans inside the stadiums and, if so, how many.
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All of this may lead one to believe that the Games will certainly take place on the new dates, July 23 to August 9. But it is not that straightforward, as organizers face challenges on multiple fronts.
The largest of these relates to the completion of the rating process.
When sporting events came to a halt last March, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said that 57 percent of the roughly 11,000 athletes expected to participate in the Games had made the cut. There are six months to ensure that the remaining 43%, about 4,700 athletes, have a fair chance to qualify.
Only four sports – cycling, horseback riding, hockey and softball – have completed their qualification process so far. In the remaining 29, the terms have been extended and the system modified. But prevailing travel restrictions mean that it is not yet clear whether many of these sports will be able to finish their processes on time.
The Japanese government’s decision on Thursday to suspend entry for athletes and team officials traveling from countries that have reported cases of the new variant of the coronavirus has also increased uncertainty. The decision comes at a time when there has been an increase in the number of cases in Tokyo.
Some of the host cities, the cities where visiting athletes, including some from India, had to train and acclimatize before the Games, have also raised health and safety concerns, fearing athletes traveling from hotspots in Covid.
The president of the organizing committee, Yoshiro Mori, has made it clear that the Games cannot be postponed again. Instead, they will be canceled entirely. The availability of vaccines – the IOC has suggested that they would cover some of the costs of vaccination – has raised hopes for the Tokyo Olympics. The question is what the Games will be like.
One way or another, the fate of the Games is expected to be known in March.
IPL World Cup and T20
Dates: IPL – March / April to May; World Cup T20 – October / November
A biobubble is obviously an answer to the challenges vis-à-vis bilateral cricket series, but for multi-team tournaments like the IPL and the T20 World Cup, which also involve players from different countries, the solution is not so simple.
Unlike last year, this time it seems certain that the IPL will be played in its original window from March to April. However, like last year, at this time it is unclear if the tournament will take place in India or abroad, and if the matches will be played in empty stadiums.
In its recent Standard Operating Procedure, the government said spectators will be able to play sports outdoors at up to 50 percent of the stadium’s capacity. While that would mean franchises could gain something from ticket sales, there are fears that players and officials will be exposed to the virus due to nonstop travel between the eight host cities during the tournament.
One option on the table is to hold the entire tournament in a city like Mumbai, which has four venues capable of hosting matches. The other proven solution is to re-host the tournament in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is known that franchises are not averse to the second option, as it saved a lot of money and energy spent on traveling.
More importantly, the more than 30,000 tests conducted during the 2020 tournament for 1,800 people came back negative, giving the teams confidence in the biosecure environment that was established in the United Arab Emirates.
Travel restrictions and quarantine protocols would also decide how and where the Twenty20 World Cup would take place, given that these were the reasons the tournament was postponed last year. There is optimism that it will take place this year, especially since it is scheduled for later in the year, when more vaccines are likely to be available.
European football championship
Dates: June 11 to July 11
In the midst of the pandemic, the euros will be held in an anti-pandemic format. The tournament will take place in 12 cities across the continent, and teams will have to travel from country to country after almost every match.
And while that might not be ideal, what has also added to the intrigue is the recent outbreak of cases in England. There were a record number of positive Covid cases in the latest round of testing in the English Premier League, leading to calls to suspend the league for a short period.
The Premier League, where many star players practice their trade, is scheduled to conclude on May 23, just in time for the Euros. The organizers kept a few days of buffering, envisioning a scenario where some of the games could be postponed due to Covid-19. That happened in December when two games were suspended.
But if more games are rescheduled, or if the league is temporarily suspended, it could have a ripple effect on other tournaments, as there are very few days off available on an already congested schedule that punishes players.
Things would get even more complicated if a similar situation developed in other countries.
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