The Health Ministry has written a letter to IPL chairman Arun Dhumal commanding the league to impose a ban on any form of promotion of tobacco and alcohol, even surrogate advertisements, from the stadium premises and during telecast.
The 18th season of the Indian Premier League will begin on March 22 with the Kolkata Knight Riders, the defending champions, meeting Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Eden Gardens.
Since cricketers are role models to the youth of the country, directly or indirectly endorsing the beverage or tobacco-related products should be avoided, according to the Director General of Health Services Atul Goel in a letter to Dhumal.
“IPL should strictly implement the regulations banning all forms of tobacco/alcohol advertising, including surrogate advertisements, within the stadium promises where the games and related IPL games/events are held as well as during telecast sessions on national television”, Goel wrote.
“The letter states that motivate sportsmen (including commentators) to refrain from advocating any product directly or indirectly associated with alcohol or tobacco.”
All important IPL event-the country and consequently advertising draw most of it.
“This country is loaded with maximum non-communicable diseases-and quite a few of them are serious-Cardiovascular diseases, Cancer, Chronic Lung Disease, Diabetes, Hypertension, etc, which resulted in more than 70 percent of the deaths in a year. Tobacco and alcohol are the major risk factors to develop NCD. We are the second number globally in terms of deaths due to tobacco use-around 14 lakh/year deaths while alcohol remains the most widely abused psychoactive substance in terms of use by Indians.” Goel wrote further.
Goel wrote that cricketers “have a moral responsibility” to advocate the public health cause.
“Cricket players are role models for the youngsters for promoting a healthy, active lifestyle, IPL being the largest sports platform in the country, has a social and moral obligation to promote public health and support health initiatives of the government,” he added.
IPL is turning out to be one of the most sought after sport leagues in the country. As a report that came out says, the league currently has a brand value of USD 12 billion. -end-.
