The Indian Premier League has begun, well, only just. And it will carry on into the second week of November. When you consider the fact, having reckoned with the dates, that the players will be obliged to stay in what is being called a bio-secure bubble, it may surprise you that they did not really tell you much about what this pseudoscientific term implies.
First, and foremost, is the stipulation of complete isolation. No player can stir out of his room, or look in on his peer next door in the hotel where they have been put up. Word is that some Indian cricketers, completely unaware of what they had let themselves in for when signing on the dotted line, wondered aloud if visiting the hotel lobby, with social distancing maintained, was okay and they were told they were just not allowed to go anywhere out, unless practice sessions were to be gone for. And going for practice sessions was no fun, given that cricketers were not expected even for a moment to be lax in terms of health protocols.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India is in this shepherded by the British company that, after its recent experiments and experiences back home, has got the thing up, quite clearly insisting on the sort of zero-tolerance attitude to normality that has, until Covid-19 struck, been life beyond the boundary.
The IPL, of course, had taken a nasty hit when quite an impressive number of people with Chennai Super Kings tested positive for the coronavirus, and unofficial information from West Asia subsequently suggested that the BCCI was prevailed upon to have the message driven home that no leeway for a slip there and a slide here would be permitted where the rules meant for the bio-security bubble were concerned. Virat Kohli, of Royal Challengers Bangalore, got up on the bully pulpit to deliver the customary be-good-boys lecture that told the world how serious the BCCI was about, ahem, players’ safety.
It may have been misled into prioritising body over mind – and not balancing the two ~ given that so many weeks’ continued isolation can be something that maddens humans. The principle that underpins it is also at odds with sport’s enjoyment and celebration of life, the reasons why virtually everyone everywhere loves games and players.
Administrators might talk of the extraordinary situation spawned by the killer virus, but players would not have been exposed to the very serious risk of psychological damage if the commercial instincts laced into the game did not deem a return to action an urgent necessity at a time when people were still dying like flies in a lot of places, including India.
And you cannot really rule out the bubble being stuck with indefinitely, what with the pandemic showing no signs of an early exit. How many players will come to be affected is the question, not if the bubble is bad.