What if one player tests positive? Dravid expresses doubts over bio-bubble plans to resume cricket

Former India batsman Rahul Dravid has cast his doubts over the bio-bubble formula of the England Cricket Board to resume international cricket.

The ECB that is planning home series against West Indies and Pakistan in July-August would ask the players to assemble at the Ageas Bowl on June 23 and the players will have to stay away from their families, physically isolated from the rest of the world for nine weeks till the series is completed.

Dravid understands the need for ECB to have some kind of cricket during the summer season but feels the bio-bubble plan is a bit unrealistic.

“In case of the bio-bubble, you do all the testing, the quarantine and then on day two of the Test match, what if one player tests positive? What happens then? The rules, as they stand now, will see the Public Health Department coming in and putting everyone in quarantine,” Dravid said in a webinar conducted in support of YUVA, a non-profit organisation, on Sunday.

“Even if ECB is potentially able to create a bubble and manage it in that way, I think it will be impossible for everyone to do it with the kind of calendar that we have, with the travelling that you do on tours and the number of people involved,” Dravid added.

South Africa has also suggested that the scheduled tour of India could be hosted in this manner.

Read: Rahul Dravid’s lockdown message to cricketers: Use this time well to extend careers

However, the Board of Control for Cricket in India are yet to decide on the bio-bubble plan.

“We will wait for the government guidelines. We won’t put our players in a health hazard,” BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal had told The Indian Express earlier this month.

The BCCI is likely to utilise any free window for the staging of the Indian Premier League season that is now indefinitely suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.