It Would Be Tough For Players To Play Under Restrictions For IPL:
Around the time the West Indies Test side (which started international cricket against England in England) was able to take their charter flight back home, the Caribbean boys were mentally worn thin. After all, they spent 51 consecutive days in two bio-secure bubbles – Southampton for the first test, and Manchester for the next two.
Jason Holder and his men are trying to convince you that 51 days is a long time to be kept in near isolation. Then imagine what almost 80 days in tight containment zones will be like next month’s re-start of the Indian Premier League in the UAE.
The biggest factor that allowed the resumption of cricket (international or franchise) is the promise of bio-bubbles – where players are protected within a perimeter that includes cricket ground as well as their living facilities. During the series against the West Indies and the ongoing series against Pakistan in England, Southampton and Manchester were chosen because both grounds have a luxury hotel in their complex.
Although the series has progressed flawlessly – no player has yet contracted the virus under the supervision of the ECB ‘s bio-bubble – maintaining pandemic security has posed a major challenge to mental staleness and over-all exhaustion.
“It was a real challenge,” Holder said at the end of the series, losing 2-1 after taking the first test. “Mentally, some of the guys are a touch stressed out. We were here (in Old Trafford) four weeks before the first test. At Southampton, we had a change in climate that we really appreciated. But then we had to come back to see the same people, the same venue, the same rooms.
It sounds like the challenges once faced by people in intense careers – including astronauts whose heightened sense of alienation – of exhaustion during space journey captured on celluloid time and again, right from Kubrick’s 2001: Space Odyssey to Cuaron ‘s Gravity.
It could well be the case again when the eight IPL teams arrive in the UAE on August 22 to commence their camps — nearly a month before the tournament is scheduled to begin on September 19 and about 78 days before the final on November 10. The teams will be playing at three venues in Dubai , Sharjah and Abu Dhabi; but each team will have only one of those venues as their home. Then, as Holder put it, ‘the same people, the same place and the same bed.’
“This year’s champion of the IPL will definitely be the best when it comes to mental and emotional health. In the end, it does not even rely on cricket abilities, “says Anand Chulani, a mental fitness coach with Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals in the past.
Aaron Finch, captain of the Australian ODI team, also hopes that the mental wellbeing of his players will hold on to these bio-bubbles as his side prepares to visit England after the Pakistan visit is over. “It could be a couple of months if you’re in these bio-bubbles and you’re trapped in these hotel rooms for weeks or months to come,” he said at an online press conference on Tuesday.
The mental-health specialist Chulani believes that those who are unable to self-motivate will suffer during this long time of containment. And Finch reiterated his thoughts when he said, “We ‘re in a position to start the global game — there shouldn’t be more incentive than that.”
“It’s easy to be inspired when thousands of people cheer on your name. The secret is activation right now. Motivation needs someone else to make you feel good about yourself. Activation is when you feel good about yourself from the inside, “says Chulani, who also deals with IPL players on an individual basis. “If you are a person who can activate yourself, you will get results during the bubble,” he adds.
Mugdha Bavare, a sports psychologist who has been associated with the Mumbai Cricket Association and their cricketers since 2006, believes that the next few months in UAE are going to test even the best. “In this case, the mentalities are going to fluctuate greatly,” Bavare says. Especially when there are restrictions inside the bio-bubble as well. Players are advised to be socially distanced and to follow all of the Covid-19 precautions that they should have at home.
Even someone like Rafael Nadal, known for his intense mental strength at the tennis court, has bowed to the strain of the Covid-19 restrictions. Sometime during the lockdown, Nadal was quoted as saying, “I want to feel safe again and be able to hug my loved ones. I can’t conceive of a world where I can’t hug players that I haven’t seen in months.
Most of these IPL players will be seeing each other for a period of five months, and Bavare feels that it is necessary to adopt the new protocols quickly. “Once you embrace reality, you will be able to adapt yourself to every kind of circumstance. Players will turn their attention on issues they can monitor, not external factors such as where they can’t go, etc, “she adds.
UAE – particularly Dubai – is a shopping paradise in normal times. Though IPL cricketers will definitely not be able to experience the city’s offers to the fullest, some of the franchises are doing their utmost to arrange their stay in resorts so that players have a wide range of facilities to take their minds off the routine. “The variety is important because doing the same thing over and over again is tiresome,” Chulani says.
But there is one big respite that awaits the experienced IPL cricketer during his stay in the UAE – regular travel or lack of it. Throughout tournaments in India, the IPL player is almost always on the move, bringing a new meaning to ‘living out of a suitcase.’ While they’ll have a lot of other headaches to deal with in the next few weeks, the long hours spent packing and waiting in the airport waiting rooms won’t be among them.
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