Nagpur, May 5
Although the players in Indian Premier League (IPL) were entertaining the television viewers for three and half hours with lusty strokes they were equally worried over the people and their families said Rajasthan Royals manager Romi Bhinder.
The BCCI on Tuesday postponed the IPL indefinitely after bio bubble burst. First, cases emerged within the Kolkata Knight Riders camp in Ahmedabad and on the same day, in a different city in Delhi, Chennai Super Kings’ bowling coach L Balaji turned positive along with a travel staff. On Tuesday, Wriddhiman Saha and Amit Mishra from KKR also turned positive. Finally BCCI took the decision to postpone the tournament.
Against this backdrop Romi Bhinder talked to Lokmat Times and shared his experience of the 14th edition of the IPL that was conducted in testing times.
Asked what was the feeling among the players Bhinder said, “ While playing for their respective franchises the players were also thinking about people outside the cricketing world. They were equally worried about their families. I think BCCI has taken the timely decision to postpone the tournament in the interest of players and the countrymen before the things could go out of hand”, he said.
Rajasthan Royals were doing well in this leg of IPL. They were on fifth place with six points in seven matches winning three. Bhinder said when there were lot of Covid related negative news were going on IPL matches worked as stress buster for people for three hours. “ Against the backdrop of Covid something good in the form of IPL was happening. The players were providing a lot of entertainment to the people but ultimately everything is not in our hand”, he said
Bhinder said logistic was the main concern in this edition of IPL. “ For the first time in IPL we hired maximum number of people for a logistic purpose. All servicing staff was ours. Each precaution right from food, medicine, travel etc was taken for the safety and security of the players. The IPL governing body appointed as many as four bubble integrity managers. It was really a big challenge to arrange all the things smoothly but we did it”, he said.
As far as foreign players are concerned, Rajasthan Royals have eight and out of them Ben Stokes and Jofra Arche were already ruled out due to injuries. The remaining Jos Buttler, David Miller and Chris Mossis have departed for their destinations on Wednesday. “ We handled the travel plan of each player very smoothly. Now every player is at his home”, he said.
RR to open Covid centre at Talegaon
Continuing their social initiatives, Rajasthan Royals within one is launching one Covid centre at its Talegoan-based academy with a view to serve poor people.
Talking about the initiative, Bhinder said, “ Right now rather than RR is thinking about the welfare of people in Covid situation. We found that the hospitals in the cities like Nagpur and Amravati are not accommodating people from a rural area. Therefore we have decided to start one Covid centre at our Talegoan facility. We will provide them medical facilities and food to the patients free of cost”, he said.