No contact tracing bands in this IPL, Bubble Integrity officers to keep track of teams

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has decided to do away with the contract tracing bands, haired as a pioneering technology during the 2020 edition of the IPL. They would now be replaced with Bubble Integrity Officers, who were also present during the last edition, but whose roles were confined to checking bubble breaches only. This time around they would be travelling with each team and tracking all their movements.

The reason for doing away with contact tracing bands was their inefficiency in catching the movement.

“BCCI has decided to do away with the idea of wearing contact tracing bands as not only is it sometimes difficult to feed information for sportspersons during the course of a tournament but also, we had a few instances earlier this year when the devices couldn't catch the movement of the players and the fact that they had left a certain location wasn't updated and players and support staff realised this much later,” a source told ANI.

The reason behind employing the Bubble Integrity Officers is the fact that they can accordingly at any instance of breach instead of a separate team assessing the case and taking action.

"As a result, it has been decided that the Bubble Integrity Officers present with the teams will keep a track of the movements and act accordingly if there is a case that comes up during the course of the tournament. There will be 4 integrity officers with each team and will work in shifts to help with this," the source explained.

Within the Bio-Secure Environment, 14 bubbles will be created as mentioned below:

Franchise teams and support staff - 8 Bubble,

Match Officials Match Management Team - 3 Bubbles

Broadcast Commentators and crew - 3 Bubbles.

The source further explained the regulation for the tournament which will be beginning on September 19 in UAE. "All franchise team members must quarantine in their hotel room for 6 full days before entering the bubble,” he said.

“Upon arrival and before commencing any group training activities, all team members who will be included in the bubble will follow the below-mentioned RT-PCR testing plan. A nasopharyngeal swab will be taken for testing. Test reports are available within 8-12 hours after sample collection,” added the guidelines as accessed by ANI.

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Reliance Jio to make entry into sports broadcasting with IPL rights

The Indian Premier League is the hottest property as far as sports broadcasting is concerned in India and it is believed that the conglomerate reliance is vying to take a dip in that arena through its digital and broadcasting hands of Jio TV and TV 18. If reports are to be believed then Jio will be bidding for the digital and TV rights of the IPL from 2022 onwards. To make this dream into reality, the network is poaching experienced hands from existing sports broadcasting networks as Disney+ Hotstar SVP & Head of Advertising, Gulshan Verma has joined JioAds as CEO. “Another senior ad sales executive from a broadcasting company who recently stepped down might also be in talk with them,” Exchange4Media quoted a source as saying. The Reliance network has occasionally been testing the waters of sports broadcast previously through its venture of TV18 which in partnership with Viacom owns and operates 57 channels in India. Recently it acquired LaLiga rights for India which would be aired on Voot and MTV. In 2018, it had acquired Nidahas Trophy and had aired it on the Hindi movie channel Colors Cineplex while it also airs the Road Safety series regularly. IPL 2020, which was live-streamed through Disney + Hotstar had a platform reach of 260 million while another 350 million watched it on the Star Sports network. Hence, the acquisition of this right is being eyed by Reliance to further increase its penetration through the Jio network. “If Jio manages to win IPL media rights, the scale of the tournament will reach an unprecedented level. It will be a never-seen-before scale,” the source said, on the condition of anonymity. Star India had paid a whopping Rs 16347.5 crore to bag the IPL media rights for five years till 2022.

Domestic giants Mumbai invited by Oman to play practice matches for T20 World Cup preparations

The Oman cricket team invited India’s domestic cricket giants Mumbai to play practice games in the Gulf nation for the team’s preparation ahead of the all-important T20 World Cup, which it will be co-hosting along with the United Arab Emirates. The T20 World Cup has been scheduled to kick off on October 17 with the Round 1 matches of which Oman would be a part. "They (Oman) have invited (us) and it is the best opportunity for Mumbai to send its team”, a source from Mumbai Cricket Association was quoted as saying to news agency PTI. This tour of Mumbai can help the domestic team as well because the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the domestic 20 over competition for 2021-22 begins from October 20 and Mumbai, which performed badly in the previous edition can bounce back this season with some hard practice pre-season. Oman has been drafted in Group B for the first round alongside Bangladesh, Scotland and Papua New Guinea, who topped the league stage in the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifying tournament in 2020. Thus for Oman to qualify as the top two teams from this group, it would take some doing and practice against a quality side such as Mumbai could turn out to be very crucial. The practice matches would most probably be played at the Al Amrat Cricket Ground in Muscat, which will also host the World Cup matches.

Sam Billings slams journalist for selectively quoting him on The Hundred and County cricket

The skipper of Oval invincibles in The Hundred and Kent in County and domestic set up, Sam Billings was being painted as someone who prefers the hundred more than County and as being in favour of young guys playing The Hundred at expense of their usual County Clubs. A journalist tried to suggest this through his tweet and a link to his write-up in it. To his and people’s surprise, Sam billings himself wrote a whole thread in the reply to that tweet as to how his words were selectively sued to fulfil an agenda. Replying to the tweet, Billings wrote, “I think these comments have been taken out of context Dan (journalist Dan Whitting)”. “Essentially I think it’s a brilliant barometer of the progress made as a county producing so many players that have been recognised as top tier in this country” and serves as evidence as to why Kent are competing in the later stages of the Vitality Blast,” he continued, supporting his argument as to why he said that Kent’s main aim has been to produce quality England and franchise cricketers for across the world as well as The Hundred. “Whether people like it or not (the 100), one thing that can’t be argued is that it’s as close to international cricket as we’ve got in our domestics structure in terms of pressure, atmosphere etc. In turn, players will be better off for those experiences. The structure needs a lot of work and counties need to be supported hugely moving forward,” added Billings, whose side Invincibles is currently among the top teams in the competition and in line to make the Playoffs. The 30-year-old who has represented England in 25 ODIs and 32 T20Is also lashed out at critics for bashing players, “for literally being signed in a draft live on TV” to play in a tournament that they hadn’t come up with. “What would these people do in our positions?” he asked. Earlier during a Hundred game, Billings had praised Kent speedster Matt Milnes, who was drafted in as a replacement player by Welsh Fire and did well to pick of Billings’ teammate Jason Roy’s wicket with his first ball in the competition. “What a great experience for a young bloke, getting a wicket with his first ball and riding the emotions of that game. That is what’s going to produce international cricketers. For us as a club – and as Kent fans in general – that’s what we want to do: produce England cricketers and franchise cricketers,” Billings had said.

Black Proteas player Khaya Zondo reveals how AB de Villiers sidelined him to play Dean Elgar

Part of South Africa’s squad on India tour in 2015, Khaya Zondo was primed to get his chance having performed well in the previous domestic season at home. However, when JP Duminy eventually got injured and there was to be a replacement, the Black player was ignored and sidelined by the management and then skipper AB de Villiers in favour of playing a Test specialist like Dean Elgar in an ODI game ahead of him. "I switched off mentally for the rest of the day and I detached myself from the team because it was clear I was not wanted," Zondo said, recalling his feelings on the day of the fifth ODI. “The hardest part was watching the players who were selected ahead of me playing and having the opportunity to shine for South Africa on a world stage, in India and having a chance to play and potentially impress and get future IPL opportunities,” added the 31-year-old Dolphins player. In a hearing in a special court in South Africa, it was revealed that what the team did was wrong and discriminatory towards Zondo. The enquiry on the issue began way back in 2015 after Zondo and other Black players submitted a letter to Cricket South Africa after returning from the India tour. However, instead of getting some respite for showcasing the courage of speaking out that he did, the then 25-year-old was mocked by the domestic players and teased as ‘Postman’ for writing the letter. Recalling an incident from a domestic game, Zondo said, "We were playing a game in Potchefstroom against the Lions and I was batting. I remember walking up to the guy who was bowling and I lost it. I was pointing my bat in his face. I had just been through the hardest thing any player can go through and they had no understanding of what it was like to be in that position and were making fun of it. Instead of these guys not having something to say, they saw fit to comment and belittle and ridicule. They saw it as a joke." Zondo also praised two of his fellow Black players for standing by him during tough times and also expected that other players would speak up as well. "They were the only two willing to stand by me. I hope other black players stand up for each other as they stood up for me. We would be a lot further along as black people in cricket if we stood up for each other and we didn't waver in our beliefs," said the right-handed batter who has represented South Africa in five ODIs. Zondo, who has been representing his domestic side Dolphins as a teenager since 2007 in all competitions also thanked his coach at that time and former South Africa player Lance Klusener for his support. "If I had a weaker coach who had not experienced the harsh things that happen to players, the outcome might have been different. Lance said to me (in isiZulu): 'Khaya, you need to be tough, you need to be strong, you need to toughen up. When this is over, you will be a better man for it,’,” Zondo said. Lastly, the man with more than 10,000 domestic runs across all formats in more than 14 years of career asked cricketers of all races to speak against indiscrimination in the game. "I would like all players to come out and speak and give their opinion or if they have had any experience, to talk about it,” he said. “Privilege often makes equality seem like oppression. For equality to come into place, people need to strip themselves of privilege so they can see other people's experiences,” added Zondo.