IPL 2020 In UAE: Will Australia And England Players Miss Matches?
It is final now, England & Australian cricketers will miss the first week of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2020). The IPL franchises will have to play the first 1-2 games without the star cricketers from England & Australia in their squads. Be it Ben Stokes, Steve Smith, or David Warner – IPL franchises will have to live without 17-18 leading cricketers due to participate in the 3 T20 & 3ODI game series that ends on 16th September.
Betway has reliably learned that, despite the franchise’s requests for relaxation of quarantine protocols related to Covid-19 to the players traveling after participating in the England vs Australia series, the BCCI has decided not to relax any Covid19 protocols for the cricketers traveling after playing the said series or CPL 2020.
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This means that by the team the Aussies and Englishmen complete their quarantine period, every IPL team would have played at least one match. But, it won’t be much of a problem in terms of preparation because they can all hit the ground running straight away.
It is worth noting that the franchises had requested the IPL Governing Council to relax the norms on the pretext of cricketers coming from one BIO-SECURE norm to the other, but the IPL 2020 management is not ready to give any relaxations in this regard.
Rajasthan Royals were set to suffer out the most by the seven-day quarantine of the players, with the side having the most number of England and Australia players in their squad. Steve Smith is leading the franchise while there are several star players from England such as Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer in the team.
IPL governing committee already set up the COVID-19 taskforce, which will act as a response team for all queries and any action to be taken during the tournament. This team is being led by Anuja Dalvi, the Indian female physio who has international experience in cricket and other sports, supported by team physiotherapist John Gloster and team doctor, Rob Young. They will be responsible for regular monitoring and medical assessment to ensure the safety of the entire team staying in the UAE.
Recently, 13 people, including 2 CSK players, were corona positive. After this, the second test of all has come out negative on Tuesday. Soon all the players will start practice. Earlier, team member Suresh Raina withdrew from the tournament. At the same time, suspense remains on playing Harbhajan Singh. Apart from this, Australian fast bowler, Josh Hazlewood has also expressed concern about the growing Corona cases.
However, living in a bio-secure bubble might pose some difficulty because the English and Australian cricketers will be completing almost 80 days in an enclosed environment by the time IPL 2020 ends on November 10.
In addition to nobody being allowed to exit the bubble, everyone’s movements will be tracked and their reports regularly sent to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). BCCI has made a deal with British firm ‘Restrata’, which has provided contact-tracing electronic badges to everyone in the bubble.