|| Desk Report ||
The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises have started doing their homework for the upcoming new season of the cash-rich T20 blockbuster cricket tournament which is slated to start at the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The franchises are also planning to hire chartered planes to ferry their players to the UAE, the new venue of the tournament, outside of India. But they want to keep players to undergo their isolation period in India.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is yet to announce the fixtures of the 2020 IPL but the franchises have started their own preparations and home work from planning to hire chartered planes to ferry the players to the UAE to deciding the hotels in which the players will live.
IPL 2020 is set to move out of the country given the present corona situation in India. The BCCI is also open to taking the tournament overseas for the third time. UAE had hosted the first 20 matches of IPL 2014 and was India’s home in Asia Cup 2018.
Media spoke to officials of a few IPL franchises, who opened up on their preparations regarding the league. One of the officials revealed that most teams are looking to hire chartered planes to fly players and staff to UAE.
“I think most teams, if not all, are already looking at hiring chartered planes. You never know if we’ll have regular flights operating by the end of August and most teams would wish to be in the UAE by the last week of August or at max the first week of September,” an official of a franchise said, on condition of anonymity.
“So, in such a scenario, the best way is to hire chartered planes as we’ll all have around 35-40 people flying to UAE. The number of members obviously increases a bit when you’re headed outside and have restrictions in movement in times like these,” he added.
The IPL franchises also want their players to undergo the isolation period in India instead of UAE. The players are expected to stay in two-week isolation before flying to UAE.
Of course, they will have to undergo multiple rounds of testing. The franchises want foreign players to join the team directly in the UAE.
“We’re looking at having the boys come together in India. Go through a period of spending time in a bio-secure environment and then get our tests done and head to UAE. The reason behind that is we’re all staying at home. So, if one of us is asymptomatic, we’ve the risk of infecting others. That is why it’s better to go through a couple of weeks of isolation and testing here in the country before heading out,” another official said.
BCCI did conduct its apex council meeting on Friday but decided against announcing anything on IPL. This is primarily due to ICC, which is yet to take a call on the future of the T20 World Cup.
Arun Dhumal, BCCI’s treasurer, has already said that the board won’t ask ICC to delay the T20 World Cup, which takes place in October-November. The BCCI is also looking at the same window to stage the IPL.
The centrally-contracted players will take part in the training camp prior to IPL. They’ll need at least five to six weeks to be match-fit. The camp is likely to take place once BCCI announces the fixtures of IPL 2020.
