IPL 2021: The COVID-19 crisis has managed to breach BCCI’s pristine bio-bubble, infecting two Kolkata Knight Riders’ Varun Chakaravarthy and Sandeep Warrier besides CSK bowling coach Laxmipathy Balaji and a bus cleaner apart from five groundsmen in Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium. As the IPL 2021 will soon reach Kolkata and Bengaluru, the respective state associations are not worried. Instead, they have already made the necessary arrangements and Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) has put their groundsmen in a bio-bubble to avoid any outside contact.
On Monday, IPL’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), Hemang Amin, visited Kolkata to take stock o the preparations as the matches will be played at the Eden Gardens from May 9. As per Gulf News, Amin had a meeting with Abhishek Dalmiya and Snehasish Ganguly, President and Secretary of host association Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) apart from BCCI President Sourav Ganguly.
IPL 2021: Kolkata ready to host IPL matches
“The meeting was more of a follow-up one as an IPL core team has been already at work in the city since the third week of March once Kolkata was confirmed as the venue. The University ground has been installed with floodlights to meet the requirement of evening practice sessions of four teams which will be stationed here,” a member of the organising committee told Gulf News.
Amin said he was happy with the bio-bubble arrangements being made to host the matches from May 9. The players will have practice sessions at Jadavpur University ground in Salt Lake besides Eden Gardens. Kolkata will host 10 IPL 2021 matches of Royal Challengers Bangalore, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Delhi Capitals, Rajasthan Royals, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings from May 9-23.
“We have done Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 before, so there will be no difficulty. The bio bubble at the stadium will have three zones. All security arrangements will be strengthened and firefighters could visit Eden on May 4. Firefighters and police will be in Zone 3 of bio bubble,” Abhishek Dalmiya told the local media.
IPL 2021: KSCA puts groundsmen in bio-bubble to prevent transmission
As for the Bengaluru leg of the matches, with Karnataka under strict lockdown, the KSCA has already put the groundsmen under a bio-bubble to avoid any possible transmission. For now, despite strict lockdowns, KSCA has made all the necessary arrangements for the IPL matches from May 9 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Bengaluru will also host 10 IPL 2021 matches of Chennai Super Kings, Punjab Kings, Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
“We are ready to host the IPL matches. We have made all the necessary arrangements including bio-bubble. The groundsmen are already safe in a bio-bubble and despite lockdowns, we will not have any problem in going ahead with the matches. As for practice ground, we haven’t yet received the practice schedule and we will only have it when the teams arrive here on May 8. But we have two grounds in Alur ready besides KSCA grounds in M Chinnaswamy Stadium,” KSCA spokesperson Vinay Mruthyunjaya told Insidesport.
For more sports updates, follow us at insidesport.co and Moneyball for IPL players’ salaries.