IND vs SA: Jay Shah Says T20I Series Won't Be Played Under Bio-Bubble Environment

The India-South Africa T20I series will be played without COVID-19 bubble restrictions, confirmed Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah.

Team India will play five T20 Internationals against South Africa at home between June 9 and 19.

Playing under the bubble environment has been the norm adopted by many sporting administrative bodies including BCCI to ensure the games are played with the safety of players and those involved in the game.

Players will not be under any bio-bubble for the IND-SA series: Jay Shah

Shah said IPL 2022 was the last tournament that was supposed to be conducted under restrictions and acknowledged the difficulty and challenges players face in such conditions.

“If I’m not wrong, the bio-bubble for IPL-2022 was the last. For the India-SA series onwards, players will be tested (for covid), but will not be under any bio-bubble,” Shah told Times of India.

“Yes, it’s tough for the players. However, they got a family-like atmosphere inside the hotel bio-bubble. In the case of the IPL, we had hotels dedicated to each team.

“The whole tournament was held at one place. All the teams had their lounges, and recreational centres (to relax and unwind). So, they also enjoyed it,” he added.

Jay Shah speaks about Delhi Capitals COVID-19 cases in IPL 2022

There were multiple COVID-19 cases detected in the Delhi Capitals camp during the league stage of IPL 2022.

Just a couple of day before their match against Punjab Kings, five members from Capitals including all-rounder Mitchell Marsh and physio Patrick Farhat returned positive for the contagious virus.

The incident forced the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to shift the match from Pune to Mumbai in order to avoid any further contraction due to any undetected case during a long-distance bus journey in a closed environment.

On the day of the PBKS match, wicketkeeper-batter Tim Seifert tested positive. However, the match went ahead as per the plans and the player was kept under isolation.

Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting had to miss the Rajasthan Royals clash because one of his family members tested positive for COVID-19. Ponting was identified as a close contact of the case and as a precautionary measure, the Australian isolated himself in his hotel room.

A day ahead of the CSK clash, one Delhi Capitals net bowler tested positive but that didn’t disrupt the match in any manner.

“My reaction (to Capitals’ COVID-19 situation) was that ‘we’ve to move on.’ For us, the safety and security of the players is paramount, but still, we decided to move on. We shifted DC’s match from Pune to Mumbai. We got all the players/support staff struck by covid treated properly,” Shah said.

“We kept conducting RT-PCR tests for DC’s members on a daily basis. Fortunately, all DC members were fine later,” he added. 

The IPL 2022 final will between Gujarat Titans and Rajasthan Royals will be played on Sunday (May 29) in Ahmedabad.

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