The 2021 edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) was postponed indefinitely on May 4 after multiple COVID-19 cases were reported in the bio-bubble of various franchises.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) batsman Wriddhiman Saha was one of the players who contracted the deadly virus, before the BCCI and IPL Governing Council decided to suspended the cash-rich event with immediate effect.
In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, Saha on Saturday (May 22) recalled the scenes before he started feeling COVID -19 symptoms.
He also explained why he didn’t come to the ground for SRH’s clash against Rajasthan Royals on May 2.
“We had one practice session before playing the Chennai Super Kings on April 28. Then before the Rajasthan Royals game on May 2, we had two training sessions. I attended both practices and on the night of the RR game, I suddenly started feeling cold for about 20-25 minutes. Considering the situation in our country, I called my doctor the next morning and asked if I should go for breakfast.
“He asked me to stay put in my room, then I had to undergo two COVID-19 tests in two days both of which returned negative. The Rajasthan match was over by then and I didn’t travel to the ground. It was on the third day on May 3 that I reported positive,” Saha said.
Moreover, positive cases were also reported in the KKR (Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier), CSK (L Balaji and bus cleaner) and DC (Amit Mishra) contingents.
“Before me, two players each from KKR and CSK, and Amit Mishra had tested positive. But none of us anticipated the postponement of IPL 2021. In fact, I had high fever only for the first two days, then it was normal around the 98-99 mark. My health didn’t break down as such, just that my nose was blocked and I wasn’t getting any smell,” he further added.
According to Saha, there was no bio-bubble breach at SRH camp and further explained his theory on how he may have caught the virus.
“We used the airport, landed in Delhi and even played the CSK game there. So if I had contracted the virus at the airport, the symptoms could’ve shown up before or during the CSK game itself. The day before I returned positive, two to four CSK members showed symptoms. And two days before that, we had played versus Chennai and I was present at the ground. I had interacted with a few CSK guys during practice, so I feel that could have been the source," Saha remarked.
“When we played in the UAE last year, there used to be no one around us even during practice sessions. But here, we are sharing the space with groundsmen, people outside the ground are also peeping through the gates or over the wall. Nobody breached the bubble, so there must have been some small opening somewhere – either through the driver, the Chennai team or somebody at the ground,” he concluded.
