IPL 2020 biosecure bubble set to be created, sponsored by Tata Group: Report

After a lot of speculation, the dates for IPL 2020 has been announced by the BCCI during the Governing Council meeting on Sunday. The cash-rich league is set to commence on September 19 and will go on till November 10. Now, the onus of conducting IPL 2020 in a safe and secure environment lies in the hands of the BCCI.

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TATA Group offers helping hand to BCCI to create biosecure bubble for IPL 2020

Tata Medical and Diagnostics, which is TATA Group’s medical arm, has offered a helping hand to ensure that the IPL 2020 is played in a biosecure bubble. Tata Medical and Diagnostics has been working relentlessly amidst the COVID-19 pandemic by providing safety services. It has offered the BCCI its expertise and assistance to create an end to end biosecure solutions for the league.

TATA's medical officials gave a presentation to the BCCI during the IPL Governing Council meeting on Sunday. According to a Times of India report, TATA offered a "holistic, state-of-the-art integrated Bridgital technology-based, end-to-end, COVID safety services solution and enable the league to set the gold standard". After the meeting on Sunday, IPL chairman Brijesh Patel said that they were given a presentation by the TATA Group. Patel added that the IPL Governing Council members are extremely impressed with the pitch and final calls will be taken before the end of this week. Another thing to note is that TATA Group's TATA Motors is already associated with IPL 2020 as its central sponsors.

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In the presentation, the TATA Medical and Diagnostics team offered that their teams in the UAE and India will partner with and work alongside BCCI, IPL franchises, the IPL event management team and Emirates Cricket Board, for end-to-end COVID safety management. The key elements of the proposal include testing, technology, expert insights, 24x7 clinical support, risk profiling and to create an integrated safety solution that covers the entire event and all the participants and stakeholders of IPL 2020. 

According to the report, the solutions will be based on an understanding of the inherent criticality and risk levels that can be categorized into various criticality groups:

1. Platinum: E.g., Players and coaches
2. Gold: E.g., TV broadcast crew; 
3. Silver: E.g., Matchday entertainers

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The IPL Governing Council is ready with the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the IPL 2020. However, it has still not been given to the franchises and broadcasters. The IPL Governing Council will first analyse the proposal of Tata Medical over the next week. If the proposal is accepted, BCCI will incorporate all the suggestions from the proposal in the SOP’s document and after that, it will be given to the concerned people.

IPL sponsors: Vivo to continue as IPL sponsors

In another major update, the Governing Council has allowed China's smartphone company Vivo, to continue as its IPL sponsors. This comes amid the anti-China sentiment across the country in the aftermath of Galwan valley clash where 20 Indian soldiers were martyred. Soon after the tensions spiked, the IPL GC had convened a meeting to decide on the future of IPL sponsors. The council which met on Sunday decided to continue with Vivo as IPL sponsors amid divided opinions. 

When will IPL start?

Ever since IPL 2020 was indefinitely postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fans started wondering 'When will IPL start? To answer the 'When will IPL start' query, the IPL 2020 will start on September 19 and go on till November 10, which was announced in by the BCCI after the Government Council meeting on Sunday. The IPL dates haven't been announced yet. However, the IPL dates are soon expected to be announced after BCCI's meeting with the franchises.

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IMAGE COURTESY: IPL & TATA GROUP TWITTER