Shane Watson Pens Down The Challenges He Faced Living In The Bio-Bubble During the IPL

Former Australian all-rounder, Shane Watson has penned down the experience of living under covid-19 protocols in the bio-bubble during his stint with the Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2020.

When the cricket resumed, after months of lockdown, the pertinent question was, how will the spread of COVID-19 be restricted, and players are kept safe? A Bio-bubble came as the answer to it. The biggest T20 league in the world, the Indian Premier League (IPL) was conducted successfully in the UAE, despite a few players and staff in the Chennai Super Kings squad testing positive for coronavirus before the tournament began.

Bubble life, it certainly wasn’t easy: Shane Watson

Shane Watson feels that he and all the cricketers who are back playing the sport are fortunate that their respective cricket boards can organize cricket under the biosecurity measures keeping the environment safe for them.

Watson, who announced his retirement from all forms of the game after the IPL, opined that bubble life was certainly not easy as the monotonicity of things and life takes a toll on their mental health.

Shane Watson wrote in a blog on t20stars, “Myself and so many of the cricketers around the world, who are back playing, realise how unbelievably fortunate we are to have our boards put all of the biosecurity measures in place to ensure that cricket goes ahead in a very safe and sterile environment.”

 “Bubble life, it certainly wasn’t easy!!! To start with, everything is very new and exciting but as the days turned into months, it really did wear me down.”

Watson, arguably the greatest all-rounder in the history of the IPL, believes that no matter what age a person is, whether he is new in cricket or an experienced campaigner, the strict isolation rules will muddle with your mind.

The 39-year-old also praised the BCCI and the IPL governing council for doing a phenomenal job in the smooth conduction of the season, which once seemed just a thought.

“No matter what your personal situation was, whether you were a 21-year-old at the start of your exciting career, working through how you were going see your partner with all of the quarantine rules in place or whether you were a single guy on the lookout for a companion, well one of these wasn’t possible and the other one was very complex unless they came into the bubble with you,” Watson added.

Watson retired from the IPL after scoring 3874 runs including 4 tons and taking 92 wickets, winning the trophy twice, with CSK and RR each. The MS Dhoni-led CSK failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in the tournament’s history.

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