England, Australia cricketers may become available for IPL first week

Many IPL teams were under a scare on missing out on their ace cricketers as English and Australian cricketers were supposed to miss the first week of the IPL in the UAE. However, Royal Challengers Bangalore chairman Sanjeev Churiwala believes there may be a way out to avoid the absence of the overseas cricketers.

Australia will be touring England for a limited-overs series which will be played from 2nd to 16th September. The 13th edition of the IPL will commence from 19th September. The cricketers arriving from England will have to undergo a seven-day quarantine period thus obstructing them from participating in the T20 tournament. This will impact all the teams since each side has an English/Australian cricketer.

RCB chairman Churiwala explained, “For the players landing after the England and Australia series, on September 17…The BCCI have also issued very detailed SOPs and procedures to be followed by these players in terms of their participation. What the SOPs say very clearly [is] that they can participate without quarantine, provided they satisfy certain very stringent conditions…Right from the biosecure bubble, they have to go straight to the charter flight without getting into the extensive migration procedures, and without getting in touch with the general public.”

“All these players will be travelling by exclusive charter flights. They will undergo tests before arrival and if everything is [fine], they’ll be fit to play the game. If not, of course, they will have to quarantine and have to undergo three rounds of tests before participating,” Churiwala added.

Rajasthan Royals will be severely impacted as the majority of their overseas cricketers are either English or Australian. Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Steven Smith, Ben Stokes and Tom Curran may miss the initial few matches of RR. RCB (Moeen Ali, Aaron Finch etc.), Sunrisers Hyderabad (David Warner, Jonny Bairstow etc.), Kolkata Knight Riders (Eoin Morgan, Pat Cummins etc.) could also miss the services of their major players.