The ECB has chosen to get rid of strict bio-bubble protocols for the India versus England Test series. The choice comes notwithstanding the fact that the camps of the two squads have had ongoing virus cases. 

Tom Harrison On Bio-Bubble Protocols

While the Indian cricket crew was dealt a shock on the tour through England, with Rishabh Pant and a support staff member testing positive for Covid-19, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has confirmed that the 5-match Test series between the two countries will be played without strict bio-bubble protocols. 

Cricket has been played in a biosecure bubble since its restart after the sudden Covid break last year yet presently ECB is getting away from it. 

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The United Kingdom is set to subdue all Covid-19 prudent protocols from July 19 and get back to the pre-Covid days in spite of seeing a spike off a soaring number of contaminations of late. The guidelines of the government authority are additionally set to affect the way cricket series or other sporting competitions work in the country. 

“We’re in a different situation to a year prior or even 6 months prior truly as for how we adapt to Covid. We’re genuinely attempting to figure out how we live with it and establish safe conditions for individuals rather than bio-secure conditions,” Tom Harrison was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz. 

“There’s a huge difference between the two. Players are just fed up with biosecurity and bubbles and that language we have become so used to using. It’s had such a detrimental impact on mental health for players, time away from families. We are just not able to operate that kind of environment going forward,” he stated.

The idea of health specialists and following one and a half years of a tussle with the Covid-19 infection is that it might remain everlastingly, however, the experts in England are hoping to move toward the novel virus in an alternate manner. While there has been criticism over UK PM Boris Johnson’s choice to get rid of the limitations, the thought behind the decision is to ‘figure out how to live with Covid’. 

“We have to learn to cope with Covid. We’re going to be living with it now for the foreseeable future so mitigation is the word as opposed to prevention. We think we’ve built in enough protocols now just to try and mitigate the impact of frankly inevitable infections,” he said.

“I think that is where we are trying to ensure that we don’t have instances where entire squads are taken out of circulation because of one or two local infections. So we’re working very hard to make sure those protocols are in place for the remainder of the season. We’ve communicated these protocols to the various camps and various teams and also the international and county environment,” Harrison further said.

Harrison, the ECB CEO, has shielded his board’s choice to unwind the bio-secure conditions that were an element of England’s behind-closed-doors crusade in the 2020 home season, contending that the mental well-being and prosperity of the players in its rivalries require the game to “figure out how to live” with Covid-19, instead of trying to forestall further infections inside team environments. 

“So we are living with the current guidelines but it isn’t impossible to operate within the context of those guidelines to have a successful environment,” Harrison asserted.

Addressing the media briefing in front of the initial match of The Hundred on July 21, Harrison cautioned that it was the obligation of boards all around the world, and not simply in the UK, to take more prominent heed of the concerns of their players – many of whom have suffered a very long time away from their companions and young families in a bid to ensure that the competitions upon the game’s revenues depend can be securely finished.