How BCCI turned the ‘safe’ bio-bubble into a nervous test of its own

Venues

How it went wrong in 2021?

While the teams travelled on roads in 2020, here they travelled on charter flights but upon arrival had to go through the procedure with the outside world. The first case that emerged from the travel - Kiran More, Mumbai’s coaching staff, caught the virus before the team’s first clash in Chennai. 

Not just that, RCB’s all-rounder Daniel Sams, who came from COVID-free Australia had contracted the virus upon arrival in India, which showed that any bit of contact with the outside world was as deadly. 

What happened in IPL 2020?

Before and post-entering the bubble, the BCCI have clearly mandated that serving a hard week-long period inside the team hotel and clearing mandatory tests before starting to train are prerequisites. In case of a positive or any asymptomatic, the isolation period goes on from seven-ten days before multiple negatives would allow the individual to re-enter the bubble. 

Multiple levels - at the venue, before the tournament began and during the tournament. 

Before the tournament - Ten days before the start of the tournament, several franchises had already arrived at their respective venues for the first phase of the tournament. However, infections in three camps - KKR, DC and RCB - had forced them to isolate themselves. Nitish Rana was tested positive and then negative, which cleared him to join the squad.

Hard-quarantine rules -  Now this is the part where it gets tricky. Kiran More tested positive and by then was already part of Mumbai’s bio-bubble. As per the bio-bubble protocols that they followed in the first week of May, the entire franchise had to go under a hard quarantine after being in touch with More, who tested positive. However, Mumbai Indians were allowed to practise and only several tests later took the field in Chennai without a hard quarantine. 

Come May, after two positive cases in the bio-bubble, the entire KKR squad had to go into isolation, alongside Delhi Capitals, who they faced in the tournament in the same week. Now different rules for different situations, so where really is the consistency in the hard quarantine rule? CSK too similarly had to undergo a similar treatment, having to enter into isolation after cases in the camp, which wasn’t too different from More and the Mumbai Indians. 

At the venue - Even before the start of the tournament, several cases of COVID at the Wankhede stadium amidst the ground staff caused a rather distress and widespread confusion. But why? If the BCCI had indeed put them under the biosecure bubble, how and where would they have got the virus from? While MCA did find replacements and the matches were hosted at the venue, where was the iota of safety in that bio-bubble that could have easily spread the virus into the playing camps? 

Hotels

The eight franchises, including the support staff, were put into bio-bubbles across the Middle East, in different hotels, where they had to abide by the regulations. The regulations included movement trackers, bubble-integrity manager and protocols, that prevented contact with the outside world. 

How it went wrong in IPL 2021?

Faulty movement trackers - In the 2020 edition of the IPL, several franchises posted photos of their players, with an electronic device around their neck - a movement tracker, in simple words. The GPS device tracked the movement of the players and also alerted them if they had stepped outside the bubble and alerted the league, which then took necessary action against the player or the franchise.

But in 2021, the apparent movement tracker was found faulty, with the GPS device not working/faulty. Some reports even suggested that the franchises never got any sort of movement trackers in the season at all, in India.