Participants in this year’s Indian Premier League Cricket competition, will face rigid Covid 19 protocol procedures ahead of the start of the event on March 26.

A three-day quarantine in the hotel room followed by a negative test on the fourth day will be mandatory before teams can enter the IPL bubble, according to the quarantine protocol distributed by IPL to the franchises on Thursday.

During the three-day quarantine, everyone who is part of the bubble will need to do in-room testing, with each test being 24-hours apart. All participants will need to continue doing the daily test for the next three days (until day six). “After the completion of three days (72 hours) of quarantine, the test will be done on fourth day and once the negative report comes, the participant can enter the bubble”.

That rule, though, would not apply for all those coming into the IPL bubble from another bubble – bilateral series, franchise preparatory camp, domestic tournament, national camp – as long as participants commute on a charter flight or by road. Several players are scheduled to join the IPL bubble directly after participating in various bilateral series in March-April, including India’s tour of Sri Lanka, Australia’s tour of Pakistan, England’s tour of West Indies and Bangladesh’s tour of South Africa.

In case the participants break out from the previous bubble, they would then need to do three-day quarantine and clear the test on day four before joining the IPL bubble. All participants in India will also need to undergo twin tests in the preceding 48 hours before they enter the quarantine.

In the case of overseas participants, it would be two tests in the preceding 72 hours.