 Hello and let's talk about the Indian Premier League. The tournament began on Saturday, September 19th in the United Arab Emirates in the most unusual circumstances. It's being held in a bio-bubble with no real spectators. On the other hand, if you see the matches, you'll be hearing a lot of spectator noise and cheering, which has been added by the broadcasters. One of the early responses by fans was a bit of ribbing of the players who seemed a bit unfit with some of the memes bordering on the lines of being offensive. There have been reports of players being injured to raising questions of what kind of preparations actually took place before the tournament. And then there's of course the question of Indian cricket at large, especially the Ranjit trophy. What happens to that? We talked in news clicks, Leslie Xavier, on some of these issues. Thank you, Leslie, for joining us. So the IPL is kicked off and of course, a lot of viewers tuning in definitely, although it's not being held in India and the circumstances are quite different to say the least. And there's of course been some talk about the general fitness of players, a lot of speculation about that. So what's your take on the first few days of action? How do you see it going? What do you think are the standout aspects that have come out over the past few days? The funny to the absurd, I would say, but yeah, let's, I mean, when I talk about IPL and the matches, of course, matches happening, businesses are coming out. And the nature of the game is such that invariably, the matches tend to be a little interesting. It gets tight and I mean, P20 is such, I mean, any match, more or less equally match sites, then it's going to be an ill writer who goes to that. And of course, sixes, fireworks, all these things happen too. And broadcast star has ensured that there is a bit of a interest because they have introduced proud noise, which has left divided opinions divided also because it looks odd that the stands are empty in the visuals, but it's buzzing. The stadium is buzzing. There's a lot of cheer. Yes. So it's and the players are not obviously not hearing it, we are hearing it. So I don't know, it looks completely surreal. It looks odd, surreal is a more positive word, I think. And so, but, but to start with, I would like to talk about generally how the setup has been for media to cover this even. So BCCI, as we had discussed a couple of weeks back in one of the talk shows, they have come complete control over the situation there. It's a bubble, it's a quarantine center also. So no, no news come out comes out unless the BCCI stands, it's approval. So media is not allowed citing health concerns and quarantine. I mean, the protocols and so. There won't, there won't be pre-match press conferences as per the BCCI rules. Post-match online media conference happens where registered journalists can tune in and the BCCI provides with interviews, but you have to apply and go through them. And images also, they provide rights for images which can be used. So all these things, narrative is completely controlled. It becomes like a big boss house if you ask me. Yeah, everybody is in there and then the drama happens and all that. Let's see, let's see how it unfolds as far as, I mean, off-field things are concerned because as we all know, Middle East, UAE, Dubai, it's the hub of a lot of bookies and people who generally try to manipulate the outcome of sport. So let's see how that goes. But as far as the narrative and the media access is concerned, this is how it is. And action gets streamed onto our TV sets or mobile or laptop screens. And the league has started. So right, so one of the questions was specifically about the fitness. Now it's a bit of a dicey discussion, so to speak, how to conduct that discussion without going into cliches and stereotypes and, you know, some of the more problematic ways in which it's often framed. So what's your take on the issue? Are you dragging me into body shaming now? But professional sport is a controlled world. And it's not about body type or body shaming asset. It's about performance also. It's about remaining injury free. So fitness, I mean, it's not about six packs either. I mean, sport related fitness is what I would be more concerned about. Yeah, a lot of memes went around on Twitter, on social media about even in the opening match CSK versus Mumbai Indians. And Roy Sharma was, I mean, visibly plump, a couple of other players as well, Manoj Tiwari, sorry, Manoj Tiwari was also, I mean, so these players were targeted online, online, I mean, social media. But Roy Sharma, if you look at his fitness, then he struggled a little through the match. He played well, but the problem was he was coming back from an injury. Last February, he got his hamstring injured. And then after that, he has not seen any action at all. He must have gone to rehab and fitness drills and all that. And then the lockdown happened. So a full-fledged fitness workouts or running or next session or anything, everything would have been absent for him. And then when you look at how the league, as progressed before, I mean, the preparation stage for the players, it's been slightly aphazard. Now the board has set the IPL governing council has set protocols for the eco bubble assets. But there were no set systems for the teams to prepare these players. So everybody went there, went by their own plans assets. So some teams are more better prepared, some teams are less prepared. But I mean, again, there's no team preparations assets because the players were all convened at the last moment except for CSQ when they had a small camp in Chennai. And so in such a situation, what happens is that there's no control over the fitness of the players for the team. So a direct comparison can be made with how the sport big sport restarted in other disciplines. For instance, football, the clubs got their players into their own special quarantine or eco bubbles and they started training them fitness wise. They they ensure that they are getting getting on the boys slowly so that they don't get injured. And then they started training after ensuring that all the players are free from from coronavirus and then full-fledged match simulation trainings happened. Then a few training matches happened. Then they got into competitions as such. So this was a full elaborate one and a half month process. Now the dates of IPL were announced one and a half to two months back. They were expecting this. So they should have probably been a bit proactive about fitness as such. And not surprisingly, there has been an injury list as well already. In the first week, you have six players who are injured. And the list, I am expecting the list to grow. So I mean, I'll just name out some of the prominent players who are in the injury list as such. Mumbai Indians, you have Nathan Colton, I was injured. Royal Challenges, Bangalore, you have Chris Mowaris, who is sitting out. Sunrises, Hyderabad, Kane Williamson is sitting out. Mitchell Marsh is out of the tournament. He is completely ruled out. So injured is right-hanging ankle in the very first over my level play. So again, Ishan Sharma is injured. R. Ashwin, again, he played the match and he injured during the match while he died. Chennai Super Kings Ambatri Raidu is injured. And Raidu, again, if you remember, 2019 World Cup, he was dropped. I mean, he was not considered for the Indian team and after that, he got angry and he retired from all forms of cricket, except for IPL. So he is coming back into competition from there. It's like more than a year. So he is injured. He has some answering problems. Going Blabo, he has seen action. He is coming from the Caribbean Premier League, but he picked up a knee injury there. So obviously, his preparation before that must have been lacking. He has a knee injury. So this is going to be one of the biggest problems for IPL and the teams and also cricket in general, because some of these players are big players for the national team. Once tournaments open, once bilateral series open, these players would be missing in action there as well. And their personal careers are also in jeopardy because IPL didn't plan it well as far as training them and as far as the fitness of the players are concerned. And this is just a physical aspect of it. Later, I was talking to one of the mental coaches who was there in the IPL, he's probably right now with one of the team. And he was telling me that he is expecting more issues on the mental side as far as players struggling with pressure and feeling with pressure and all this in the latter half of the tournament. And also the isolation doesn't help at all. Isolation doesn't help at all. And that's another aspect to it, which should be addressed, which IPL would address, I guess, because they have no choice. But it's going to be one tricky league, unlike any other normal circumstances when you look at the Indian Premier League. And in this context, any other interesting international examples that you can think of, how fitness is being dealt with? So the biggest sport that has been, I mean, if you look at football, obviously, some injuries have been there with all the leagues happening. But that is, I mean, it's not been unprecedented numbers as such, because football is an injury-con sport and when high intensity, high quality action happens, some players are bound to pick up some needles or so. But otherwise, things have been so systematic that, and due to not be, because they were not careful or they were not systematic, no injury has been as happened as such. We saw a US happen being completed, the women's champion pulled out of the French Open, which is going to start this coming weekend. Naomi Osaka has always struggled with hamstring injuries, so she had taped her leg up when she was competing at the US Open also. And yeah, of course, a player has to also take the schedule very carefully these days. So we are talking about a couple of, I mean, at least a couple of months, I mean, the gap would have been there between two grand slams. And we are talking about US Open just finishing and then the French Open starting within a fortnight. So I mean, it's going to be a huge toll on players, exactly why Nadal possibly didn't play in the US Open and he's trying to focus on his favorite surface. Anyways, but if you look at generally tennis players, they were all on the boil. Yeah, it's an individual sport, it's easy probably for them to train and maintain their physical intensity coming into the tournament. But still, like I said, it's a trap getting into comparison between sport, but cricket is more forgiving as a sport, I would say. And on the day when tennis uppercans played Mumbai Indians in the opening match of this season's IPL Saturday, we saw a tremendous physical feat happening in France to the France second last stage, stage 20th, the eventual champion. He rode a ride which can be termed as a ride of the century or maybe ride of a life, like many objectives. So Kade Pogacar, 21-year-old, became the youngest to the France champion post World War II era. And he did that by cutting the deficit by 57 seconds. He was behind, at that point the leader, again a fellow Slovenian Roglic, he was behind Roglic by 57 seconds. He overcome that deficit and then he took a lead of one minute as well. So he cut two minutes in that single stage which was a time trial and it was unprecedented because it was a climb. He also was not using any technological aids like a power meter or so. So he was going just by physical instinct alone and post this victory to the France, there were some stories about his training and preparation. So April it was when his team manager asked him to stay off cycling for a week because he was already showing signs that he speak. He said that you cut down the intensity a little because we want to peak up to the France in France from September. So you are talking about April, so what were our cricketers doing in April? So you are talking about professionals in various sports, different sports, but you are talking about professionalism. As a professional player you are getting paid so much of money to perform. So even under unprecedented circumstances, even under lockdown, there is duty just like as journalists. So if you are in lockdown also, we will try and maintain our work environment, our work networks, our work system so that we do justice to the salaries that we get, we do justice to the professional tag that we have. Absolutely. So that's a direct comparison I would like to make rather than comparing the physicality of the sport as such. It's a professionalism that cricketers should maintain. And the nature of cricket as such which is forgiving in a way, that's why they get away with it as well. Right, absolutely. And Leslie finally, of course there is a lot of discussion about the IPL, but what about the Renji Trophy and the domestic seed in India otherwise? It seems to have completely vanished from discussions and coverage. So what do you think about it? In fact that was the first thing that we would have discussed because we should have, we should and the entire country should discuss because that is where cricketers come up from IPL. Yeah, IPL is a stage where players get picked up from the Renji youngsters and then they show the metal and then they get into the national team set up or they get into teams and become domestic IPL stars as such. But Renji Trophy is where the real talent is. Renji Trophy is the platform where youngsters come up. Renji Trophy is the backbone of Indian cricket. So there's no plan as such as far as I know so I mean till date whether the upcoming season of Renji would be held or not. I mean understandably it's a difficult task if you look at the magnitude of the tournament as such the teams involved, the traveling that would be involved and all that. So I understand BCCI being a little careful about it, but what I don't understand is it's not about being careful as such there has been no discussion, there has been no planning, no contingency as such. Again a direct comparison can be made with football, the all India football federation then again it's not a perfect federation as such, but at least they are making an attempt. So they are staging the iLeague second division now in the coming week and they are going to stage the Indian Super League in Eco, Bubble and Goa. They're going to stage the iLeague which happens to be the second tier tournament now in Calcutta in an Eco, Bubble in Humber in late in the year. So there and slightly short and cut trail tournament you're looking at there ISL would be full-fledged. So attempt was made to at least the top three, four tiers of the Indian Domas Kirtchak has been maintained. Of course the age group and tournament and all the discussion has not happened yet and it's again a huge task. So then G, BCCI, it's clear the priority here is the money factor. So profit is not the money spinner for BCCI. IPL is and broadcast issues are there and broadcast rights and broadcasters pressures and so that prompted BCCI to push for this league to be staged so much so that even the World Cup was dropped. So it looks unlikely that the Renji Trophy would be staged this season and that would be unfortunate for the entire lot of picketers because their livelihood, their career, some of them would be hitting critical junctures in their career where this season or the next two, three seasons would make or break them, would help them come up into the national team or maybe relegate them into, but I mean so they are more unfortunate. But in general if you look at it for Indian cricket it would be very unfortunate if the Renji doesn't take place and that seems to be the likely scenario at the moment. Thank you so much as you were talking to us. That's all we have time for today. We'll be back tomorrow with more news from the country and the world. Until then, keep watching NewsClick.