Wicket-keeper batsman Wriddhiman Saha, who recently recovered from the deadly coronavirus, highlighted the bio-bubble flaws in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.
The IPL 2021 was taking place at the time when India was facing the second wave of COVID-19 and provided something for the fans to cheer at the melancholic time. The cash-rich was eventually suspended as cases started coming up even in the bio-bubble.
Saha, who plays for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the T20 extravaganza, contracted the virus during the tournament and was kept in isolation till he recovered. The SRH wicket-keeper, in a recent interview with PTI, suggested that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was a better place to host the IPL than India. Since IPL 2020 was completed successfully without a player or ground staff being found positive of the virus.
“I don’t know what would have happened, but definitely I feel it would have been better off in UAE this time as well. It’s for the stakeholders to look into it,” Saha said.
The 36-year-old added that last year’s IPL was more efficient and tight in terms of bio-bubble when compared to this year’s.
“It’s the job of the stakeholders to assess it, but the only thing I would say is that there was not a single individual during our training in UAE (last year), not even a ground staff. Here there would be people, kids peeping from nearby walls. I don’t want to comment much but we saw how the IPL went off smoothly in UAE in 2020 and then it started in India this year with cases on the rise,” Saha asserted.
The Siliguri-born further revealed his health status and his experience coming out as a winner against COVID-19.
“I’m doing all normal activities, there’s no fatigue, body ache, or any weakness. But I will actually get to know how my body is coping when I get into actual match training mode. I had a slight fever for the first couple of days, lost smell after five days but it returned within four days. It was about spending time with family, friends (virtually), catching up with some light-hearted movies and keeping myself in a good space. I was never mentally disturbed or down. I was just being normal,” the wicket-keeper added.
Saha will be travelling to the United Kingdom with the Indian squad for the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final and a five-test match series against England.
