Women's Senior T20 Trophy: No mandatory quarantine, but strict bio-bubble in place

The players will not have to undergo mandatory quarantine, a norm over the past two seasons, but a bio-bubble will be maintained as Women's Senior T20 Trophy gets underway across six venues from April 18.

Players had to undergo a five-day quarantine ahead of the Ranji Trophy which took place in February-March after a two-year gap. Its second phase will be held post IPL.

With COVID caseload coming down drastically over the last couple of months, the BCCI has decided to do away with the quarantine protocol but bio-bubble will be in place and testing will take place regularly.

Majority of the India players who were part of the Women's World Cup squad in New Zealand are expected to take part in the domestic T20 competition.

In a communication to state units, the BCCI operations team wrote "there will be no mandatory quarantine but bio-bubble will be maintained. All teams will arrive at the respective venues with a negative RT-PCR test."

A BCCI official explained the updated COVID protocols to PTI.

"The only relaxation is the mandatory quarantine in hotel room. Players will be tested during the competition. They arrive on April 15 and train for the following days before the first game on 18th.

"In no way, we are lowering our guard when it comes to COVID. The quarantine protocol has been done away with for cost reasons and with virus situation under control. No player will be allowed to leave the hotel," the official said.

Five elite pools will have six teams each while the plate group will have seven teams. The matches will be played in Pondicherry, Trivandrum, Rajkot, Mohali, Ranchi and Guwahati. The knock outs will be played in Surat.

"Each venue will host three matches per day on two grounds. Two morning matches will start at 8.30 am and evening match will be played under lights from 4.30 pm," read the BCCI communication.