Amid rising Covid cases, PSL 7 set to kick off in Karachi

The seventh edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) is set to begin in less than a week and the preparations are well underway.

However, once again, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is once again a daunting task of completing the cash-rich T20 competition at the time with an increased number of coronavirus cases in the country.

On Friday, more than 7,000 cases were reported in Pakistan and Karachi remains the hot spot with the ratio of positive cases reaching more than 45 per cent.

Those numbers are alarming and are certain to make things even more difficult for the organisers to ensure that the competition will go ahead as per plan after multiple interruptions in the last two years because of coronavirus.

Bol News look at some of the arrangements done by the PCB for the bio-secure bubble for the PSL 2022.

Three bubbles at four different places

As per ESPNCricinfo, the PCB will have three different bio-secure bubbles for the PSL’s seventh edition. The bubbles are created in the same manner as the one had during the PSL 2021 in Abu Dhabi.

The first bubble will be at a dedicated hotel and will comprise of all teams, support staff, match officials, hotel staff, certain PCB officials, bus drivers, close protection security staff, reserve players, bubble-integrity managers and anti-corruption officials. All those individuals will not be allowed to leave the hotel. Each team will have a dedicated floor allotted to them to ensure that the players will not be able to meet players from the other teams.

The second bubble is for the broadcast crew which will be established at two separate hotels in Karachi. As per sources, the majority of the local staff will reside in a separate hotel whereas the foreign crew members along with some local members as well as the commentators will stay in a different hotel.

The third bubble will consist of ground staff who will reside in separate accommodation. To understand the severity of Covid-19 cases in Karachi, during the first round of testing on Wednesday, nine ground staff members tested positive for the pathogen.

Testing protocols

The report stated that the players will go through as many as 17 tests during a month-long tournament. The players, upon their arrival in Karachi, will go through a three-day mandatory quarantine where they will have to test negative twice before being allowed to train. The teams will have four days of preparations before the mega-event kicks off.

If any individual tested positive for Covid-19, he will be immediately isolated for a minimum of seven days and a maximum of 10, depending on the severity of the symptoms. All the close contacts will also be isolated and tested.

Plans in case of Covid-19 outbreak

If there is a Covid-19 outbreak like the one that happened last year, the league will be paused for seven days and the bio-secure bubble will be created from the scratch. However, if the situation becomes dire, with no window available later in the year, the league will be cancelled.

The PCB has already announced a pool of players who will be available to join any team if a few of their members tested positive.

Penalties for bubble breach

In case of a bubble breach, the individual will face different sanctions, including the possibility of exclusion from the competition.

Dedicated hospitals entry and exit points

In case a player will have to go to the hospital because of illness or injury, the PCB already has two dedicated hospitals in Karachi and Lahore for the treatment.

Both facilities will have dedicated entry and exit points to ensure that the players and officials will have minimum contact with people outside the bubble.

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