The current reports suggest that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is not in the mood of relaxing the mandatory seven-day quarantine period for crucial cricketers from England and Australia, arriving in the UAE for the IPL 2020. This may lead to some key players such as Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Steven Smith, David Warner, and Pat Cummins missing out on the first few matches of their respective IPL franchises.
On Friday, Australia announced their squad for their tour to England for three ODIs and three T20Is scheduled to be played between September 4 and 16. The IPL 2020 is scheduled to commence in the UAE from September 19. As many as 29 players from Australia and England will be taking part in the eight IPL franchises, some of whom, like Pat Cummins and Glenn Maxwell, were signed at the 2020 IPL auction for record sums of money.
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BCCI had decided to host the IPL 2020 in the UAE, the BCCI has managed to come up with the standard operating procedures (SOPs), that has definite rules from the time wich each and every cricketer in the UAE till the time the tournament comes to an end.
Players will have to go through the various amount of tests soon after reaching UAE, starting with the three mandatory tests during their seven-day quarantine period. Only after testing negative for three times, a player will be allowed to join the squad for training.
According to the reports of ESPN Cricinfo, despite the fact that the franchises have agreed to the SOPs, several teams have asked the board if the 7-day quarantine period be reduced for the group of players that will feature in the England-Australia series.
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In a call with the IPL, franchises reasoned that considering the players would be exiting one bubble to enter another in IPL while likely traveling on a charter flight, the testing, and quarantine process for such players can be made lenient for them to be ready to play matches quickly.