Honorable Minister of State Youth Affairs and Sports and Minister of State for Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju on addressing webinar with industry experts said on the relaxation of Quarantine rules and the changes in guidelines in relation to COVID 19 protocols is a suggestion made by industry experts for the return of live sports events in India. The sports sector has taken a huge hit with no live sports activity. In a webinar organized by a leading daily, an industry think-tank body, Vivek Singh JMD of Procam International said, “In 2019, the live sports events sector in India touched 9,100 crores and without COVID this sector would have easily touched Rs 10,000 crores this year. However, that could not happen and now the revenue loss due to COVID across the board, including media is approximately Rs 4,000 crore”.

The webinar session has experts in the sports business industry and also included former athletes namely Pullela Gopichand, Ashwini Nachappa, Viren Rasquinha and Udit Sheth, founder of SE TransStadia and CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee, addressing sports minister Rijiju. Vivek Singh said quarantine rules, unavailability of event cancellation insurance and promoters’ liability are the key challenges that need to be addressed for bringing back the live sports competition. “Overseas athletes are today subject to about 12 days of quarantine and multiple COVID tests etc. We are concerned that such a long quarantine would affect the participation of elite athletes in sporting events in India. Our appeal to the ministry is that a COVID negative certificate within 72 hours of their taking a flight and another negative test within 36 hrs of their arrival in India and the creation of a bio bubble by the event promoter should be enough for participation. The quarantine rule should be relooked at the earliest”.

Singh added each participant whether it is a player or official is responsible for his/her safety. Sports minister Rijiju said he likes to see the return of live sports in India and added the ministry is trying it’s hard to resume all sport training activities by this month. Early next year, India will have some kind of very fascinating events back in the field.

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