Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli celebrated his wife, Anushka Sharma's pregnancy with teammates in Dubai even as several members in the rival Indian Premier League (IPL) camp, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) tested positive for COVID-19.
Sharing the captivating video of the couple, partying with RCB team members, RCB Saturday said: "7 days of quarantine in Bengaluru followed by 7 days in Dubai and 6 COVID tests later, the team finally got a chance to spend quality time together in a dedicated private beach and a state of the art team room, within the secure bio bubble."
In what appears to be a diligently edited video, RCB also declared that "All RCB players and Support Staff in this video have undergone mandatory quarantine and COVID tests... They are now within a biosecure bubble. We encourage everyone watching to wear masks and follow social distancing norms. Stay safe."
Sensible, indeed.
Watch it here:
However, it should be watched with caution.
Despite taking aggressive measures, CSK members, including two players ended up contracting the dreaded virus.
And if unfortunately, any member of the RCB team ends up getting infected or later revealed to be COVID-19 positive, then there will be blame games, like the one CSK are facing.
Everyone is happy, but none seems to take care of coronavirus protocols. Maybe, it's about their confidence in the bubble.
Meanwhile, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) issued an official statement on the developments in the CSK camp.
Confirming the infections, it said "13 personnel have tested positive of which 2 are players. All the affected personnel as well as their close contacts are asymptomatic and have been isolated from other team members. They are being monitored by the IPL Medical Team."
But in a bid to ally the fears, the BCCI once again reiterated that it "has put in place stringent health and safety protocols for the Dream11 Indian Premier League 2020 Season, which is scheduled to start from September 19th in the UAE."
"Accordingly, upon landing in the UAE, all the participants have followed a mandatory testing and quarantine programme.
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"Total of 1,988 RT-PCR COVID tests were carried out between August 20th – 28th across all participant groups in the UAE. These groups include Players, Support Staff, Team Management, BCCI Staff, IPL Operational team, Hotel and ground transport Staff," the statement added
The players whose COVID-19 test results returned positive are Deepak Chahar and Ruturaj Gaikwad.
The 13th edition of IPL is scheduled to start September 19, but the BCCI is yet to release the fixtures of the tournament.
