Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
After affecting several players and members of upcoming IPL, the dreaded COVID-19 virus has seemingly breached the bio-bubble of the mega event where the crew of host broadcasters are staying. A recent media report claims that at least 15 team personnel of the team, who were staying in a hotel in Mumbai ahead of the start of IPL 2021, have contracted the infection. All of them are said to be part of the production staff. It is worth noting that BCCI has created multiple bio-security bubbles for various stakeholders attached with IPL 2021. With the new COVID-19 cases rising every day in India, especially in Mumbai, the BCCI remains adamant on hosting the matches in the city.
Not the first instance of COVID-19 cases among non-playing members
Notably, this is not the first instance of COVID-19 cases being reported from among non-playing members involved in the functioning of the tournament. Other than the players Nitish Rana and Axar Patel testing positive for the infection, there were reports of a content team member from CSK testing coronavirus positive. Moreover, at least 8 to 10 event managers had also returned positive results.
Broadcasters raise red flag about COVID situation in Mumbai
"Star (Broadcasters) is concerned about their broadcast crew. If the ground-staff and event management team is getting Covid-19 infected – the same can happen to Star’s crew. They have to closely mingle around with both ground-staff as well as the event team. That is the reason Star is very concerned about the situation," a BCCI source was quoted as saying by InsideSport.
Notably, India's daily COVID-19 cases surpassed 1,00,000 mark for the first time on Monday since the outbreak of the pandemic and one might see a last minute change in the venue even though it is becoming increasingly tough to create another bio-bubble in a different city as the scheduled start of April 9 is approaching fastly.