The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday launched BCCI’s bio-secure protocols for Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, which is about to begin from April 9.
In what comes as a giant reduction for India and England gamers, the board has allowed a bubble-to-bubble switch of gamers who’re at the moment a part of the continuing India vs England sequence.
The BCCI has made it clear that these gamers who will likely be coming instantly from the India-England bubble, won’t be compelled into quarantine and will likely be allowed to affix their respective franchises instantly with out having the necessity to endure quarantine and even clear additional RT-PCR Tests.
“Players coming directly from the Bubble created for the India vs. England series may be permitted to join the franchise squad without serving the mandatory quarantine period, provided they satisfy the criteria of moving directly to the franchise team hotel either in the team bus or on a chartered flight (sic),” the BCCI acknowledged in a observe, reported Cricbuzz.
“If chartered flights are used then all protocols for crew members should be adopted. If the journey preparations are to the satisfaction of the BCCI Chief Medical Officer then such gamers will instantly enter the franchise workforce Bubble with out the necessity to serve a quarantine interval or endure an RT-PCR check,” the observe added.
However, it’s but to be seen if the identical rule will apply for different bubbles, similar to these collaborating within the South Africa-Pakistan sequence. But, the franchise officers consider that the Bubble-to-Bubble switch guidelines will apply for them too so long as they’re flying by chartered flights.
Notably, whole 12 Bubbles will likely be created out which eight Bubbles will embody franchise groups and assist employees, two Bubbles will likely be for match officers and match administration groups and two extra Bubbles are meant for broadcast commentators and crew.
Moreover, the BCCI’s officers and operations groups won’t be a part of any Bubble and as a consequence, the BCCI officers can not work together in individual with any participant, workforce assist employees, match administration groups and broadcast crews.
Following are the SOPs which have been issued by BCCI for IPL 2021:
- Bubble-to-Bubble switch guidelines will apply for gamers so long as they’re flying by chartered flights.
- Bubble integrity managers for every workforce: The BCCI will appoint as much as 4 safety employees with every franchise workforce who would be the designated Bubble integrity managers. They will journey with the workforce for whole IPL 2021. “Their job will likely be to report any Bio-secure Environment protocol breaches by members of the franchise workforce to the BCCI Chief Medical Officer,” the observe stated.
- No Covid-19 vaccination drive for these concerned in IPL 2021: “The vaccination program towards COVID-19 is underway in India and vaccines are at the moment being administered to the at-risk inhabitants viz. front-line employees, well being care professionals, individuals over the age of 60 years and people between the ages of 45-59 years who’ve comorbidities like cardiac illnesses, diabetes, most cancers, and many others. Until a lot of the inhabitants is vaccinated and proof against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, precautions will have to be taken to include the unfold of COVID-19 in the neighborhood,” the observe stated.
- No threat from Cricket balls: “New scientific study of cricket balls as potential vectors of the novel coronavirus showed the risk of transmission to be very low. If the cricket ball goes in the stands or outside the stadium, the 4th umpire will provide a replacement from the library of cricket balls. The previous ball when returned will be sanitized with alcohol-based wipes and/or UV-C by the 4th umpire and placed in the library.” The utility of saliva, nevertheless, remains to be disallowed.
- Entry guidelines for 1st leg in Mumbai and Chennai: The passengers arriving from the UK, Middle East, South Africa, Brazil, and Europe will likely be required to endure 7-day quarantine at their very own value if travelling to Mumbai, whereas these getting into Chennai will likely be required to submit an e-pass issued by the Tamil Nadu authorities.
