When the new year dawned in January 2020, we could have hardly imagined what was going to be in store for us as a civilization. Nobody could have predicted what happened and the unpredictability of the pandemic brought a lot of setbacks. In the plethora of mishaps, suspension of sports was one that hit all of us fans hard. When in March, we saw series after series getting cancelled, The reality dawned on us that it won’t be long until Cricket too, gets suspended altogether. That’s something that was not only unimaginable but also, caught all of us off-guard.
In a normal year, the Cricket calendar is so jam-packed that almost every day you have a great match to look forward to. As a fan, you almost take it all for granted. This year, however, made us all realize the value of live sports and how we are lucky to have this game in our lives. Stepping into this new year, there were so many events that we looked forward to witnessing this season especially the T20 World Cup. But alas, that was not to be. Let alone, the events but the ability to step out and play our beloved sport with our friends and family was restricted due to various lockdown restrictions. A sport that defined our lives was now almost completely taken away from us.
This huge void left by the unavailability of live cricket couldn’t have been filled in any way but everyone tried to find a way to survive this phase. Nostalgia was one of the best ways that the fans used to try and cope with this dark phase. Various fan archive aggregators across a variety of platforms be it on Twitter, YouTube.etc provided the fans with a lot of content from the past and that helped the fans to relive some great moments. Notable mentions in this regard have to be Rob Moody and Mainak Sinha, who both are great archivists. They do all that they do, just for the love of the game and that’s what makes them and their deeds special. Fans like me can’t thank them enough for what they have done in those months.
Another way few fans tried to cope up was to fit cricket into our new severely restricted areas. Backyard cricket with families became popular again and was a great way to keep our connection with this game alive. Some commentators like Mark Church had other plans. He started with the series called Commentary at Home in which he used to commentate with his daughter on various famous incidents that had happened across the years.
Another way that fans tried to survive this huge setback was to engage in various quizzing competitions. Quizzes are always a great way to not only test your knowledge but also reminisce about various iconic moments that happened over the years. Platforms like Wisden, ESPN provided quality quizzes and this activity caught a lot of steam in this lull period. It was also great to see various boards opening up their archives for the fans. Even the ICC opened up their archives so that the fans could relive some epic encounters from the ICC events.
When live Cricket finally returned with West Indies touring England in July 2020, it was a huge sigh of relief. There were many doubts about how the series could go through but kudos to ECB for pulling it off. It was a huge step that was the stepping stone for the live cricket to resume. Each and every session was something that we cherished. We had learnt our lesson, be it in the hard way that Live Cricket should never be taken for granted and how lucky are we that we have this great sport enriching our lives.
