IPL 2020: England-Australia Players Quarantine Period To Be Decided Today

The West Indies‘ players and others participating in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2020 have joined their respective franchises. The IPL-bound players from the England and Australia squad are yet to join as seven franchises wait eagerly. These players are reportedly set to arrive in UAE from Manchester on Thursday.

The English and Australian players will be thus available for the first round of IPL 2020 fixtures but the quarantine rules makes things a bit complicated. The guidelines state that six days of quarantine is mandatory to anyone arriving in the UAE and the BCCI is understood to have made a request to reduce the number of days to three, according to a New Indian Express report.

The parent body of the lucrative tournament and ECB have made a special corridor which will see the players travel from England to UAE without any outside contact. The board, as per the report, has mentioned if the teams ensure a safe passage for players arriving from England, they may be allowed to participate in the IPL without the mandatory quarantine period. However, with the local authorities denying the demand, a decision on relaxing the quarantine period can be taken today.

“From our end, everything is ready. We are waiting for approval from BCCI. A special bio-secure corridor has been created for their safe travel. They won’t come in contact with anyone outside the bio-secure environment. We are waiting for clarity on quarantine period,” Chennai Super Kings CEO Kasi Viswanathan said.

Earlier, as per a report in Mumbai Mirror, seven franchises have agreed to bring back 22 players directly to UAE via a charter flight from Manchester.  The players will leave for Dubai to be available for their team’s respective opening matches in time.

IPL 2020 will be played entirely in UAE due to the pandemic situation forcing the cricket board to host the tournament away from India. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah will be the three venues used for the tournament. Dream 11 have been named as the sponsor for the upcoming season of the tournament after VIVO pulled out.