Jay Patel
After weeks of confusion, the start of the Australian Open will be delayed by three weeks because of the coronavirus pandemic, a schedule released by the men’s tennis tour revealed. The CoVID-19 has changed the sports. This has affected many parts of games but the entry of Bio-Bubbles tech to keep isolation in check has brought drastic changes to the mindset of players.
Rule changes in sports this year had mostly to do with social distancing and avoiding as much contact as possible. The most prominent of these was the no-saliva rule in cricket matches. Shining the ball using saliva is an instinctive action in cricket, and bowlers especially had a tough time restraining themselves. The ICC mandated that a team would receive two warnings following which five runs would be awarded to the batting side if the fielding team committed the third infringement.
Bio-Bubbles:
Bio-secure bubble is a new normal safe and secure environment which was introduced in the sport of cricket in 2020 during the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic timeframe meanwhile the sport being played behind closed doors. The players are required to stay inside their hotel facilities as a self isolation for a period of days ranging from seven to fourteen without interacting with fellow players.
The teams had to stay within bio-bubbles, and so did the match officials and broadcast members. Mixing was avoided as far as possible. The matches were played in empty stadiums, until recently.
The ICC also said that teams would be allowed to make a “like-for-like” substitute—similar to the concussion substitute—if a player showed COVID-19 symptoms during a Test match. Home umpires were used in all formats of the game owing to the logistical challenges.
“It can be quite tough. You can’t interact. You’ve basically lost your freedom. It’s almost like luxury prisons we are in. But we have to remind ourselves that we are fortunate,” – Rabada
Pre-match handshakes were disallowed in all sports and teams arrived on the field at different times. And yet, match officials overlooked post-game interactions between the teams, which pretty much defeated the purpose of not allowing handshakes.
In tennis, two Grand Slams and the World Tour Finals took place after sports returned. Players were not allowed to hand over their towels to ball kids, and were instead given boxes on their sides of the court to place their sweat-soaked towels.
The US Open saw a major shift that could become permanent soon. To reduce the number of people on court, line judges were replaced by Hawk-Eye technology at the US Open on all courts except the main Arthur Ashe Stadium. The line judges returned in the French Open as players’ demands that clay courts also eliminate the use of line judges fell on deaf ears. Moving forward, these officials could soon be a thing of the past.
Bio-bubbles technology is implemented through Contact tracing and artificial intelligence. Contact tracing is broken down into three stages: contact identification, contact listing and contact follow-up, and recent technologies leverage Bluetooth (with a six-foot detection range) and Artificial Intelligence to automate this continuous data collection and processing, so that monitoring is detailed, seamless and in real-time.
V. Kohli, Captain of Indian Cricket team said that the length of cricket tours in the future and even player selection and motivation to play certain series could well be affected by the bubble life.
Effect on Mental Health:
Given the amount of cricket played on average, being within these bubbles for a long time is a concern for some. Boards like Cricket Australia have recently appointed its first mental health and wellbeing officer and there has been increased emphasis on the issue as players deal with being in bio-secure hubs during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Nice to test our mental strength. It’s almost like Big Boss” – Dhawan
The initiative was deemed to have dramatically affected the mental health of the cricketers and some cricketers have expressed displeasure over the strict quarantine and bio-secure bubble environment. The players who are involved in bilateral international cricket series, domestic cricket competitions, and franchise T20 leagues are not permitted to meet their friends, families and relatives during the duration of the cricket tournaments and matches. Serious sanctions are imposed on players who breach the biosecure bubble. Bio bubbles are accused of causing anxiety attacks. Kagiso Rabada compares IPL bio-bubble to ‘luxury prison’.
The bio-bubble does not just limit itself to the pitch or field; it is, of course, mandatory that all entities partake in this new form of quarantine. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will provide ‘bio secure bubbles’ in hotels, training sessions, matches and transportation, as confirmed by Brazilian footballer João Victor of ISL’s Hyderabad FC. Often, wearable or an accreditation card will carry a chip-enabled GPS device to provide Restrata, IPL authorities and franchises detailed and live capability to track and trace individuals at all times.
Former India captain and current National Cricket Academy head, Rahul Dravid had questioned the concept of bio-bubble in May when ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) proposed the idea of keeping players in isolation for the entire tour to keep cricket up and running amid the pandemic. As per Shikhar Dhawan, the biosecure bubble was compared to the like of living in a Bigg Boss house.
England all-rounder Sam Curran expects some players to opt out of national selection “in the near future”, as the strain of life in a series of bio-secure bubbles begins to take its toll.
Even though it’s going to be ‘bio secure’ by name, it’s not going to be entirely foolproof. Ram Gopalakrishnan, a senior infectious diseases physician at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, explains the concept. “A bio-bubble is a virtual concept,” he says. “It keeps the number of people inside the stadium to a bare minimum but you still cannot prevent infections.”
Finishing shot: As if the tragedy of 2020 were not enough, India eventually went to Australia and were bowled out for 36 in a humiliating first Test defeat!
Photo credit: Wikipedia Public files
