“Given how the gestation period of Covid works, two days would hardly have made a difference. Second, a day’s delay at Old Trafford would have meant a day’s delay in the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL). There is a lot at stake here, not just for the BCCI but for the entire ecosystem,” sources close to the development told TOI after the fifth Test was cancelled.
The BCCI’s next focus is to move the players – who have now tested negative in three back-to-back RT-PCR tests – into a separate bio-secure bubble that will move from Manchester to the UAE in 48 hours and with the franchises will merge. ‘ Bio-bubbles that have been waiting for two weeks now.
Both BCCI and ECB are now learning from mistakes that could have been avoided.
In the case of BCCI, despite conducting a very smooth IPL in UAE in 2020 by hiring an IT and health security firm to create a state-of-the-art bio-bubble, the Indian board did not repeat the same practice in IPL 2021. Due to which the IPL was stopped midway.
Similarly, the ECB – having hired the same IT and health security firm for the series against West Indies in 2020 – did not repeat the same practice in the recent five-Test series against India.
Both have learned their lesson the hard way.
Once a two-time embarrassment, the BCCI now intends to exercise extreme caution as the IPL Phase-II draws to a close.
“More importantly, after the IPL there is the T20 World Cup, which will also be hosted by the BCCI. So, the responsibility and the responsibility will be more on the BCCI,” say people associated with the development.
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