The rise in the COVID-19 cases in the country and the instances of the same within the franchises has become a cause of concern for the BCCI. Mumbai and Delhi are two of the five venues that are scheduled to host the IPL 2021 matches but both these cities have seen an unprecedented rise in the number of news cases in the past few days.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is now planning to request the Indian Government to have separate IPL security check-in counters at the airports so that the teams can have a secure bio-bubble as per a report in The Indian Express.
Apart from this, the board is also planning to conduct tests on a daily basis while the bio-bubble integrity officer will have to ensure that no one leaves the room without a mask. Other than this, the players will have to wear their masks while leaving the ground as well.
The protocols also suggest that if a player or a support staff comes in direct contact with a person infected with COVID-19, he/she will have to go under a seven-day isolation period but if the contact had been minimal then the player would be allowed to train after two negative tests.
The BCCI is forced to alter the protocols after the franchises have had COVID-19 positive cases within them. RCB’s Devdutt Padikkal and Daniel Sams, KKR’s Nitish Rana, DC’s Axar Patel and MI’s scout and wicket-keeping consultant Kiran More had tested positive.
Devdutt and Rana though later recovered and have joined the camps of their respective teams. The IPL 2021 will begin on Friday with RCB taking on MI in Chennai.