Cricket In The Time Of Covid

The 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2020) gets under way in the UAE on September 19. The official schedule for the tournament had not been released at the time of going to press, but the very first match is likely to feature four-time champions Mumbai Indians and three-time winners Chennai Super Kings.

The 53-day tournament will see matches played in Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, with the final on November 10. The logistics of a tournament of this scale are pretty intimidating anyway, and playing it away, in the midst of a pandemic, increases the challenge exponentially. Not surprisingly, all the focus is on the so-called bio-secure bubble that is being built to minimise the risk of a Covid breach. The ‘bubble’ refers to the strict containment zones around the hotels, stadiums and transport to be used to ferry players, staff and organisers across the three match venues and two training venues in these three cities. Even with all the restrictions on their numbers, there will still be hundreds of players, coaches, support staff, umpires, ground staff and security and media personnel, among others, who will have to be quarantined and Covid-tested before being let into the containment zones, where they must remain for the entire duration of the IPL.