Auckland: Mumbai Indians fielding coach James Pamment has said he felt safe inside the bio-secure environment in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.
Pamment, who arrived in New Zealand on Saturday, following the suspension of the cash-rich league, said while some of the senior Indian guys weren’t too happy with restrictions, they did feel safe inside the bio-bubble made by the BCCI for the IPL.
“Some of the senior Indian guys don’t like being restricted and told what to do, but we did feel safe — at no point did we feel the bubble would be compromised, the challenge was the travel,” stuff.co.nz. quoted Pamment as saying.
“But we started to get Indian guys in our environment whose families were very sick. There were bereavements as well and we were taking a bit of a cue from those guys who were saying ‘no, we want to carry on’ and the messages were coming back that this is a good distraction,” he added.
The second wave of coronavirus has infected many people in India, and the number of COVID-19 positive cases has been increasing at an alarming rate in the country.
The New Zealand cricket coach admitted that he realised people were struggling to get the medical treatment only when he saw TV and not when he was actually out of the team’s hotel.
“Yes, you do see ambulances occasionally on the roads, but what you do see more of when you’re driving around the streets are people waving at you, people queueing up to watch you train through a fence,” said Pamment.
“It’s not like you’re in a war-zone, but you could see the TV pictures and know there’s people here struggling to get medical needs,” he added.
The New Zealand contingent except for Tim Seifert, who has tested positive for COVID-19, came via Tokyo after IPL 2021 was suspended last week amid the rising cases of COVID-19 in India.