“The first impression we got when IPL was shifted to UAE was that there will be no quarantine there. But it was not so. While Dubai doesn’t have any quarantine rule, we found there was a mandatory 14-day quarantine in Abu Dhabi where we set up our base,” KKR CEO Venky Mysore said during a webinar on Monday.
It put the team in a fix. “But fortunately we were able to talk to the health ministry there and impress upon them that the BCCI prepared bio-bubble followed by us is good enough preventive measure. We were finally allowed to practice after six days,” he stated.
But being quarantined in a foreign land for a week was not easy and the team management planned some creative ways to keep them engaged.
“We organised some quiz and Antakshari (singing) event on an online platform during the quarantine period,” Venky said.
The quiz questions covered various issues along with cricket. “We have questions on SRK (team owner Shah Rukh Khan) and Bollywood too and I must say most of the players were quite aware of the issues,” Mysore stated.
Two days later was the Antakshari competition which turned out to be a hilarious affair. “I am glad that their (players) main profession was playing cricket and not singing,” Mysore, who too listened to those singing, said in jest.
“The most daring and adventurous singer was Rinku Singh,” he stated. “He was not only singing but even got into action standing up on his bed with no inhabitations,” Mysore laughed.
However, he added that youngster Subhman Gill is a good singer.
“See in spite of them having all their favourite TV channels, Netflix and all, being indoors always was tough. So this laughter was needed to keep them relaxed,” he felt.
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