As per the recent reports of the Indian cricket board has secured a budget of nearly ₹10 crores for more than 20,000 Covid-19 tests which are going to be conducted during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020, starting September 19. While the eight franchises had to bear the cost of the tests that took place in India, the BCCI is picking up the tab for the RT-PCR tests which have been conducted from August 20 when the teams started landing in the UAE.
Explaining the same, a senior IPL official whole talking to PTI said, “We have engaged VPS Healthcare, a UAE based company to conduct the tests. While I can’t put a number, it will be more than 20,000 tests which would include everyone. Each test would cost BCCI around 200 AED (Dirham) excluding taxes. So the BCCI will be spending something in the tune of Rs 10 crore for the COVID tests. Around 75 healthcare workers who are part of the company are a part of the IPL testing process.”A
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The BCCI is in no mood of taking the safety measures lightly and officials are concerned and the healthcare workers have been put in a separate hotel.
The BCCI official further elaborated, “We couldn’t have taken the risk. A separate bio-bubble has been created by the company in a hotel. Around 50 of its health care staff are attached to the testing process while another 25 are engaged in lab and documentation work. The BCCI is however not paying for this bio-bubble and hotel expenses which will be borne by the company.”
A total of 1988 Covid-19 tests were carried out between August 20-28 across all those involved with the tournament, including players and support staff.
On Saturday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed that 13 personnel including two players tested positive for COVID-19. However, on Tuesday, it was found that all the members of the CSK contingent have been tested negative and they will have to undergo another negative test in order to resume training.
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The final match of the 2020 edition is scheduled to be played on a weekday, i.e. Tuesday, for the first time in the history of the cash-rich league. This time, both the afternoon and evening matches will be played half-an-hour earlier than usual.
