It's a very unfair world- Indian women in hard quarantine in Australia

At a time when athletes’ mental health is being debated across the world, the Indian women’s cricket team is serving a two-week hard quarantine in Australia.

They aren’t even allowed to meet or talk to each other, not go out and train even for an hour a day (remember the men’s team was at least allowed to train during quarantine), the players have been given some dumbbells and some barbells in the room to do some basic exercise.

“We can only open our doors when the food is here and only when it is announced that someone is waiting with the food. But to play for India all this is now par for the course during Covid”, said one of the players.

This is where some form of uniformity needs to be established the world over. If the Tokyo Olympics can be conducted with athletes being allowed to train in the first week itself with regular RTPCR Testing, such draconian norms like what is being followed in Australia makes very little sense.

Not breathing fresh air for 2 weeks, stuck in small rooms with no ventilation and not meeting or speaking to each other can absolutely take a mental toll on athletes. Having gone through a few days of hard quarantine in Tokyo, one can comment on how hard it is.

Balancing of rules and restrictions key to level the playing field

Rohit Sharma, who had served a similar two-week quarantine last year was on record saying this is the hardest thing he has ever done and he will never go through it again in his life.

While Covid remains a looming threat, we need balance where authorities follow science and testing and are also sensitive of athletes’ well being and mental health.

With 6 of their Australian counterparts training and others in quarantine, the Indian players are stuck in hard quarantine, only a few weeks away from the first match. At this point we need to wonder if we are giving them a level playing field to start with? Clearly it is a very unfair world at the moment.