New Delhi: Amidst the rising care of COVID-19 amongst the contingents playing the cash-rich league in UAE, the BCCI has appointed a central COVID-19 testing agency in the UAE to ensure test reports of every player and support staff reaches the board and its respective franchises efficiently.
A close source from the board reported that earlier teams were allowed to have respective testing agencies. “The BCCI felt it was important to have a central testing agency as that would help in keeping a tab on all testing taking place as also the results of the test would be immediately available to the board. There will be no delay in transmission in this process,” the source said.
Citing the recurrent detection of COVID-19 amongst the cricketers the board integrated with VPS Healthcare to conduct tests during the second leg of the series. BCCI has introduced bio bubbles to keep a track of the body temperatures of all players and officials heading to the ground on match day. As per the instructions by BCCI every franchise has to monitor their temperature regularly and share the data to BCCI on the day of the match prior to the teams’ departure from the hotel.
The IPL was called off in May in view of the second wave of the pandemic. Resuming on Sunday, the second leg recorded the first match between CSK and MI. So far, only one player of the cash-rich league from SunRisers Hyderabad tested positive for the novel virus.