The Coronavirus pandemic has hit every country in the world hard financially, except China, where the virus originated. It even threatened the hosting of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020, as India saw a major spike in the COVID-19 cases when the IPL was supposed to begin from March 29.
The pandemic led to the cancellation of the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia this year, giving BCCI a chance to hold the IPL outside India, in UAE, where the tournament will begin from September 19 onwards.
The BCCI has budgeted nearly Rs 10 crore for more than 20,000 COVID-19 tests to be conducted during the upcoming IPL 13 season. The eight franchises had borne the cost of testing 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.
"We have engaged with 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," a senior IPL official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
IPL 2020: CSK players and support staff test negative for COVID-19; one more test remains
"So 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," the official said.
The BCCI is not taking any chances with the health of players and officials and the healthcare workers have been put in a separate hotel.
"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," he informed.
A total of 1988 COVID tests were carried out from August 20-28 across all those involved with the tournament, including players and support staff.
This resulted in 13 Chennai Super Kings testing positive for the Coronavirus, which in turn extend their quarantine period. All are currently undergoing a 14-day mandatory quarantine after which they will have to return two negative tests, following which they can return to training.
(PTI inputs)
