Opinion
Over the past few weeks, players at Big Bash League clubs have tested positive for COVID, which was not unexpected given the current surge in cases caused by the Omicron variant.
Many professional sporting teams and leagues around the world have successfully been able to deal with COVID and prevent outbreaks by implementing strict protocols. However, the Big Bash League’s handling of the virus has simply not been good, to put it mildly.
Prominent reporter Tom Morris broke the news hours before the Heat-Sixers game was scheduled to be played that the Sixers would be playing the Scorchers that night instead, due to positive cases in the Heat camp. The Scorchers-Thunder game was also moved back to a later date in order to accommodate this schedule change.
Change of fixture! Due to Covid (again)
Tonight it will be the @ScorchersBBL v @SixersBBL instead of @HeatBBL v Sixers.
Details coming shortly on @FoxCricket #BBL11
— Tom Morris (@tommorris32) January 4, 2022
Fans have known for a while that Sixers-Scorchers would be a clash that would likely decide who sits at the top of the table. A lot of them had the game penciled in as a must-watch and accommodated their schedule to watch the game on the 6th of January.
Announcing that arguably the biggest game of the season yet was going to take place just hours before the game was a major inconvenience to them as they had to scramble to change their plans last minute in order to watch the game. Many of them were not able to do so, and as a result the league lost out on significant viewership for a marquee match-up.
In addition, the fixture change unfairly resulted in the Scorchers being given only hours to prepare for their biggest game of the season yet, through no fault of their own. The Sixers had already prepared to play a game that day, so they were at an advantage compared to the Scorchers.
Similarly, the League forced the Melbourne Stars to keep playing games even though many of their players kept on testing positive, insisting that the games must go ahead. As a result, the Stars had to field many players who hadn’t played a game of Big Bash cricket before.
The aforementioned stance taken by the BBL put the Melbourne side at a significant competitive disadvantage, considering that they were in a good position to qualify for finals before their outbreak but have dropped to second last on the ladder since.
The league did respond to the Stars outbreak by mandating masks and social distancing for all players sitting on the bench during Stars games, but that measure just wasn’t good enough. The Stars outbreak has only kept on growing and today, their captain Glenn Maxwell tested positive for the virus and is symptomatic.
(Photo by Daniel Pockett – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
Mandating masks and social distancing for players sitting on the bench during games, while allowing them to intermingle with the general public indoors, makes no sense. The Big Bash should take a page out of the NRL’s rulebook and at the very least mandate masks for all club personnel while they are in public indoor venues if they are even somewhat serious about safety.
Even an indoor mask mandate may not prevent more disruptions to the competition given the speed that the virus is currently spreading at.
The league should ideally ban players from intermingling with the public and enforce a strict bio-bubble for club personnel and their families for the remainder of the season if they are serious about player safety and want to minimise further disruptions to the competition.
I hope the rest of the competition proceeds smoothly, however, given that the league has badly mismanaged COVID so far, there is no reason for me to believe that it will.
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