Feb 7: 6,151 fresh COVID-19 cases, 49 deaths in Karnataka
Bengaluru, Feb 7: Daily COVID-19 infections in Karnataka declined to 6,151 on Monday, taking the total positive cases to 39,02,309, according to the health department.
The cumulative fatalities stood at 39,396 as the state reported 49 deaths, the health department said.
The data shared by the department showed that 99,254 tests were conducted today, whereas the state had been conducting over one lakh tests ever since the outbreak of the third wave of COVID-19. The state had reported 8,425 fresh infections on Sunday.
On Sunday also the state had tested 1,29,337 samples including 99,023 RT-PCR tests.
In its daily bulletin, the department said 16,802 people were discharged, taking the total number of recoveries to 37,75,799. Active cases stood at 87,080.
Bengaluru urban district reported 2,718 infections and 15 deaths.
Other districts too had fresh cases including 321 in Belagavi, 285 in Mysuru, 219 in Hassan, 210 in Tumakuru, 195 in Kodagu, 182 in Mandya and 177 in Shivamogga.
There were deaths in 19 districts including six in Mysuru, four each in Tumakuru and Udupi and three in Dakshina Kannada.
There were zero fatalities in 12 districts.
The positivity and case fatality rates for the day were at 6.19 per cent and 0.79 per cent, respectively.
There were 1,92,051 inoculations done, taking the total vaccinations to 9.73 crore, the department said.
To view today's health bulletin: CLICK HERE
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Same rules were there earlier too, my question is who altered them: Harbhajan Singh
New Delhi (PTI): Former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh on Friday asserted that the BCCI's 10-point policy for its centrally-contracted players has actually been in place since his playing days and wanted to know when was it "altered" and by whom.
Terming the guidelines "fresh documentation", Harbhajan said the move diverts attention from the team's forgettable on-field performance against New Zealand and Australia recently.
Days after the 1-3 defeat in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the BCCI has come up with a 10-point diktat to promote "discipline and unity", making domestic cricket mandatory, imposing restriction on the presence of families and personal staff on tours and banning individual commercial endorsements during series.
To Harbhajan, all these measures seemed like old wine in a new bottle.
"Let me first put this on record. When I was reading the travel policy document reported by the media, I hardly found anything new from the last time I represented India as a centrally-contracted cricketer," Harbhajan told PTI during an interaction.
"At least nine out of 10 points, including duration of family visits, staying in same hotel, practice timings, all are same. My question is if these rules were in place during my time, who all have altered it and when? That should be probed," Harbhajan, who has 700 plus international wickets across formats, said.
The same assertion was also made by one of Harbhajan's former India teammate Irfan Pathan.
For Harbhajan, what is certainly not funny is the timing of issuing these guidelines as he feels the discussion should have been strictly on cricket only.
"Hum log mudde se bhatak rahein hain (We are deviating from the main issue). We didn't lose 1-3 because wives and partners were there for two months. We didn't lose because someone travelled separately.
"We lost because we have played very poor cricket at times. We didn't bat well even at home. We have players who are horribly out of form. What are the course corrections being made? Or is it just these off-the-field things being discussed?" he questioned.
One of India's finest spinners, Harbhajan then recollected his playing days.
"I think some of the points needed to be revisited because they were being flouted. Like in our times, I never saw a Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid or Anil Kumble leave for Mumbai, Kolkata or Bengaluru just because the match has ended in three days and next game is a week away.
"They all stayed and travelled to next destination. Only change I see (in the new rulebook) is 150 kg suitcase allowance. Back in the day, we used to have lesser.
"Why would you need to tell players that you have to travel by team bus? That's a given. If someone was breaking the rule, that person needs to be probed."
While he completely supported barring the personal entourage of any particular player or a coach, Harbhajan felt that the BCCI can have a couple of quality chefs travelling with the team.
"BCCI has deep pockets. Why do you need to carry personal chefs. In soccer World Cup, big teams carry their own chef, who takes care of dietary requirements of players. Have a couple of team chefs. It is not a big deal," he added.
According to Harbhajan, the only thing new in the policy document is players requiring prior approval of head coach Gautam Gambhir on certain matters, and the former spinner didn't agree with that.
"In our times, it used to be written that prior approval of BCCI was needed on certain matters. So, for approvals, drop a mail to BCCI and ask for permission. Why does the head coach need to get into all this? That is not his job.
"His job is on the field and in the technical aspects where we are lacking. Administrative part should be left with competent people in the BCCI," he said.
