BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — Former Test Captain Jason Holder has described cricket during the ongoing COVID-19 environment as the “hardest days” of his career, pointing to mental exhaustion as one of the major side effects of the biosecure bubble.

The 29-year-old Barbadian was one of several West Indies players who returned to the Caribbean recently following the abrupt suspension of the Indian Premier League (IPL) due to the surge of COVID-19 cases in India.

Holder, who featured in a single game for Sunrisers Hyderabad, flew to India immediately following Sri Lanka’s tour of the Caribbean which was played on the heels of the Regional Super50 in February.

“This has been the hardest days of my career so far. Mentally, it gets pretty exhausting and pretty boring,” Holder lamented.

“It is good to get this break and I presume I will have to take one or two more breaks as the year unfolds.

“We have got a pretty heavy schedule and it will be pretty interesting to see how I manage myself and my mental state, but it is taking it step by step, and not getting too far ahead of myself.”

Holder played a key role in cricket’s historic first biosecure series when he led West Indies on a three-Test tour of England last July, at the height of the pandemic.

The top-ranked Test all-rounder played cricket virtually non-stop thereafter, leading Barbados Tridents in the Caribbean Premier League last August, turning out in the IPL for Sunrisers before heading directly to New Zealand for West Indies’ two-Test tour in December.

While this year’s IPL bowled off in early April with much promise, soaring COVID-19 cases resulted in a national crisis and organisers were forced to abort the tournament after several franchises reported positive cases, despite the biosecure bubble.

Holder said he never felt unsafe, however, with the integrity of the bubble remaining intact.

“The bubble we were in was fine and it was no different to any other bubble than I had been in before. Probably this was one a bit tighter than others of the past,” he told Nation News here.

“But I felt safe. We were really treated well. All the staff of the hotel were housed in the bubble. And everyone we would have come into contact was in the bubble.

“I felt pretty safe but there were a few cases that popped up in a few franchises. Apart from those, I think it was going alright as it relates to the integrity of the bubble.”

Holder, along with white-ball Captain Kieron Pollard, veterans Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo, and Sunil Narine, Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Andre Russell and Fabian Allen, all campaigned in the IPL this year.

Media reports have indicated that all but Gayle have returned to the Caribbean.

Holder said even though he was disappointed the IPL could not have continued, the focus now would be on rejuvenating himself.

“I am obviously disappointed that the tournament was cut short or postponed but it’s still good to be home, having [not] been home since January, so it’s good to come home and see the family, refresh and recuperate,” Holder explained.

“My mood is not too bad but I am just hoping that we can all get back to some normalcy, some way, somehow, in the not-too-distant future.”