From bubble to bubble: Three major differences between IPL 2020 and IPL 2021
The Indian Premier League’s 14th edition had to come to an abrupt halt after the Covid-19 virus managed to break inside the bio-secure environment created for the league. Notably, IPL 2020, which was held in UAE, was conducted in a bio-secure environment too, and the whole tournament was carried out successfully. This raises a question on where did things go wrong in India in 2021?
Here are 3 major differences between IPL’s 2020 and 2021 bio-bubbles
3. Caravan format
The 2020 edition was conducted across three venues (Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah) which were closely located, whereas the 2021 edition was held in a caravan format with teams travelling to other cities after completing one leg.
While no cases were reported during the first leg (held in Chennai and Mumbai), as soon as the teams travelled to Delhi and Ahmedabad, they were exposed to the risks. Even though BCCI ensured all measures to maintain the bio-secure environment, it was beyond their control to avoid the risks of players coming in contact with airport staff, security and transit personnel who were outside IPL’s bio-bubble.
Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting to you FIVE TIME IPL CHAMPIONS – #MumbaiIndians #Dream11IPL pic.twitter.com/Wz2ONkrh7E
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) November 10, 2020
2. India’s COVID situation
Unlike the situation in UAE last year, India’s COVID situation was much worse even when the IPL started. While the caseload in UAE was barely touching even a five-digit mark last year, all six venues in India marked for the conduction of the tournament were hotspots and the situation got worse with time.
Even BCCI President Sourav Ganguly took note of the same and admitted that “Last year everything was restricted to three venues and within a limited area. There was no air travel involved. Here we had six different venues. You also have to look at the situation around the country. The number of people getting affected daily (in India) is total madness.”
1. GPS tracker and strictness inside the bubble
The bio-bubble in the UAE was followed with remarkable stringency, while many lapses came to light in 2021. For instance, Devdutt Padikkal, who had tested positive ahead of the tournament was allowed to join RCB’s training session without having undergone the mandatory quarantine and other protocols mentioned in the SOP for any person recovered from Covid-19.
In the UAE edition, a high quality, GPS-based tracking device was used to monitor every person’s movement inside the bio-bubble. While a similar tracking device that works on GPS was to be worn as a wristband by each individual in the IPL ecosystem in 2021, the same was found faulty and termed “substandard” by the franchises. The device works on Bluetooth and collects the data from the device to track all movement of the person wearing it, which can be received and accessed on a mobile application.
