Covid Pandemic 2nd anniversary: Two years on, life in a bio-bubble is still a trouble for athletes

(Representational image) Inside the bio-bubbles, play resumed in empty stadiums with artificial squad noise to make sportspeople feel at home. (Image: Jake Kokot via Unsplash)

Over the last two years, the world has found creative solutions to carry on in these pandemic times. One such solution was the bio-secure bubble. Introduced in mid-2020, the bio bubble made it possible to restart sporting events. This was the new normal, something that would ensure that sport would begin but in ‘managed’ environments.

A bio-secure bubble is a safe and secure environment created to shield athletes from the outside world during a sporting event. This bubble can only be accessed by a certain set of people who are Covid-19 negative, to minimise the risk of transmitting the virus. The bubble usually comprises a hotel and stadium or sports arena, and extends to only squads, athletes and event staff who are part of the event, to prevent interaction with the world at large.

The athletes and staff are tested regularly during their stay in a bubble to ensure that the virus is not being transmitted while they are travelling or meeting others within the bubble.

The first sporting bio-secure bubble was introduced in basketball in the Taiwan Super Basketball League. Later, the NBA in the USA staged the last part of its 2020 season at Orlando, Florida’s Walt Disney World, in a bio-secure bubble. Three resorts at the Disney World were utilised to house the players and the games were staged in one of the arenas there.

But the extreme restrictions did not suit everyone.

“It’s probably been the most challenging thing I’ve ever done so far as a professional... I would be lying if I sat up here and (said I) knew that everything inside the bubble, the toll that it would take on your mind and your body and everything else, because it’s been extremely tough,” NBA superstar LeBron James was quoted as saying on bubble life.

Closer home in India, cricket was the sport which was majorly affected by the virus and the bio-bubbles.

In most cricket events in 2020, a UK-based company called Restrata was pressed into service to track, trace and manage the bubbles. The company provided players with apps to track cricketer movements, regulated social distancing and also spotted possible bio-bubble breaches. Action resumed in empty stadiums with artificial squad noise to make cricketers feel at home.

For tournaments or a series, jumbo squads started getting selected as means of being prepared for any kind of eventuality. With sportspersons being in a bubble, there was little or no scope for the outside world to interact with them. In cricket, for example, a local net bowler, usually a young boy or girl based locally would be pressed to bowl to visiting teams. But with the pandemic raging, squads started travelling with their own batch of net bowlers.

Despite these strict bubbles, breaches did take place in late 2020 and quite a few sporting events were either rescheduled or suspended mid-way.

Most famous sporting suspensions in 2021 were the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and Indian Premier League (IPL). A number of players, too, left these tournaments mid-way even before the outbreak forced the suspension. The Omicron variant, too, impacted a number of events towards the end of 2021 leading to disruptions in schedule.

In fact, as per research, there were eight instances between July 1, 2020, and May 31, 2021, of athletes pulling out of events either totally or mid-way.

The biggest sporting show on the earth, the Olympic Games had to be delayed by a year and were finally held in July 2021. The Games Village, home to all athletes, officials and staff during the Games were asked to strictly follow a set of protocols after a three-day initial quarantine. At all times, the athletes were expected to wear face masks, except during their on-field performances. Athletes were tested every four days, with all data being updated via an app. However, taking the vaccine was not compulsory.

Scheduling needs to be looked at in future, because playing in bubbles for so long, two to three months, is going to be very, very difficult going forward. 

- Virat Kohli

But despite these measures, there was a famous pullout at the Tokyo Olympics. Champion gymnast from the USA, Simone Biles pulled out of both the team final and the women's individual events at the Olympics to focus on mental health.

She said suffered from a case of ‘twisties’, a state that prevents gymnasts from competing, often even leading to an injury. "I can't even fathom twisting. I seriously cannot comprehend how to twist. Strangest and weirdest thing as well as feeling," Biles wrote on her Instagram story.

This pressure of bubble life is starting to tell in other sports as well with research being conducted to show how severe it can be. Mental health professionals have been pressed into service to ensure that athletes remain in top condition.

“The stress associated with competition hubs may have had a cumulative impact, and it is possible that the negative effects were experienced weeks and months after the event. Athletes, often lauded for high levels of resilience, are being challenged to adapt and develop new ways of coping to maintain their mental health and wellbeing," wrote Cricket Australia (CA)’s mental health lead Matt Burgin and chief medical officer Dr John Orchard in an article for the British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine.

Despite these warnings, the recent Ashes tour by England almost did not take place because of strict regulations in Australia and protocols of various states in that country. Players could have been confined to just their hotel rooms, but for some deft maneuvering from both cricket boards to resolve the issue.

India’s football captain Sunil Chhetri put out a series of tweets in January this year to explain just how difficult a life is inside a bubble.

At 3.00 pm on a game day, the gears begin to switch in anticipation of kick off. Instead, here we are, in our rooms wishing things around could have been better. It’s a difficult season. It was always going to be one.
— Sunil Chhetri (@chetrisunil11) January 15, 2022

Chhetri's close friend and former India cricket captain, Virat Kohli in fact started the debate in the country.

“Scheduling needs to be looked at in future, because playing in bubbles for so long, two to three months, is going to be very, very difficult going forward. You can’t expect everyone to be at the same level of mental strength. Sometimes you do get cooked and you do feel like a bit of a change," said Kohli.

But it is not all gloom and doom for everyone with regards to life in a bubble.

“Nice to test our mental strength, it (the bio-bubble) is almost like Bigg Boss. It is a new thing for everyone, more than challenging, I see it as an opportunity to improve in every aspect. I keep myself entertained; I take it in a positive way. It totally depends on how a person talks to himself; you can be your best friend or you can be a victim,” cricketer Shikhar Dhawan told the Hindustan Times.

Some others like champion wrestler Bajrang Punia decided to stay positive, thanks to a book he read in the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics. He read The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, a self-help book focused on the Law of Attraction which encourages motivation and positive thinking. Being allowed to play golf was a request for an English limited-overs cricket tour to South Africa in late 2020. Unfortunately, positive cases in the hotel that they were staying in led to the tour itself being curtailed.

Everyone is now learning from experiences of the last couple of years. Tournaments are not getting disrupted any more because of a few positive cases. The infected person is now isolated and then allowed to rejoin the bubble post a prescribed number of tests.

Take the recently held AFC Women’s Football Cup in Mumbai and the Indian Open badminton in New Delhi. Both were hit by positive cases, but still went ahead in a ‘managed environment’, though it did impact certain teams and reduced their strengths - including India’s team strength.

The recently concluded PSL was another example of how tournaments are managing the situation with regular testing, tracing and isolating. But bubbles are a must even now. So strict were the bubbles that a husband-and-wife participating in the tournament in varying capacities could not even embrace each other on their wedding anniversary.

The husband, a cricketer, Ben Cutting of Australia, part of Quetta Gladiators, and wife Erin Holland, a TV presenter, were socially distanced though at the same ground. They met each other from a distance, and Holland even interviewed Cutting but could not even share a piece of cake that she cut to celebrate their anniversary as they were in different bubbles. That held true even for Cutting’s birthday which was also incidentally during this year’s PSL.

While being in a bubble is a given in the medium term, what athletes are now seeking is a reduction in the pre-event quarantine period. It has varied from seven to ten to 14 days and changes from event to event.

In 2021, the Government Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Srinagar, Uttarakhand, did a study on cricketers focusing on just this aspect. “The players have to spend a long time away from their families. Moreover, during the pre-competition quarantine phase, players are restricted to their hotel rooms only. This can have an adverse effect on the health of the players as they have to spend a lot of alone time, which can lead to introspection and rumination consisting of constant negative feelings," read the report.

It appears that this is finally being looked at.

A beaming India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin recently announced on his YouTube channel the ‘good news’ that for the upcoming IPL, he just has to do a three-day quarantine. He informed his legion of subscribers that after the first three days of isolation, a test would be done on the fourth day and they can join the bubble immediately.

The relief and the smile on Ashwin’s face told a tale of its own.

However, life in a bubble will still be the same, at least for now. Till that changes Ashwin and many other athletes will have to make do with just these small wins.

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11 major sporting events in 2022

The year 2022 is to witness a number of major sporting events:

1. ICC Women's ODI World Cup in New Zealand (March 4 to April 3) - Ongoing

2. Indian Premier League (March 26 to May 29)

3. World Aquatics Championship in Fukuoka, Japan (May 1 to 29)

4. Women's Hockey World Cup in Spain and The Netherlands (July 1 to 24)

5. IAAF World Championships in Eugene, USA (July 15 to 24)

6. Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England (July 28 to Aug 8)

7. Asian Games in Hangzhou, China (Sept 10 to 25)

8. Asia Cup Cricket

9. FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup in India (Oct 11 to 30)

10. ICC Men's T20 World Cup in Australia (Oct 16 to Nov 13)

11. FIFA Men's World Cup in Qatar (Nov 21 to Dec 18)

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Bubble rules during IPL 2020

1. Players and support staff of the franchises were in Zone 1 on match day. No one else was allowed inside this zone at any time, except match officials and anti-corruption officials

2. In the dressing room, the franchises were allowed only 35 people. These included 17 players, 12 support staff, four from the logistics team and two security officers

3. Event staff was in a separate zone

4. Franchises/teams used their own logistics staff to deal with catering, unlike in pre-Covid times

5. Ground staff had access to tend to the pitch, but would always steer clear of players

6. Host broadcaster had little or no presence on the field because of protocols with distance being maintained from squads