The 21 players who will travel from the England-Australia limited overs series to the IPL will have to isolate themselves for a variable period ranging from one to six days once they arrive in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday night.
For the group traveling to Dubai, consisting of 18 players from six teams, the quarantine period would be one day, while the remaining three, Pat Cummins, Eoin Morgan and Tom Banton, who are part of Kolkata Knight Riders, will have to undergo to six-days of quarantine before they are available for selection.
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The development means that all players will likely be available for the first game of their franchises when the tournament starts on Saturday. This also means that the pair of Josh Hazlewood and Sam Curran would be available for the selection of Chennai Super Kings, who will play the first tournament against the defending champions the Mumbai Indians in Abu Dhabi, subject to their passing the only mandatory test on Friday.
ESPNcricinfo understands that the IPL has prepared a group-exclusive set of standard operating procedures that makes it mandatory for players to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) once they disembark in the United Arab Emirates late Thursday. The group of players who will be based in Dubai will need to go to their room at the team hotel and get tested in their room on Friday. If the result is negative, the player can start training.
As for the three Knight Riders players, it is understood that they will need to be in their rooms for the first six days and once they pass the required testing process, they can join the rest of the team on the seventh day. Cummins, Morgan and Banton would be available to be selected for the Knight Riders’ first game, which is September 23 against Mumbai in Abu Dhabi, where both teams are based.
The 21 players were part of the limited overs series between England and Australia, which concluded in Manchester on Wednesday. This group is scheduled to land in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday evening after the respective franchises they are a part of have arranged a charter flight from Manchester.
Given that players would move between England’s biosecurity bubble and that of the United Arab Emirates, the franchises had asked the IPL to relax the quarantine rules so that players were available for selection and training immediately. .
However, the IPL was constrained by the protocol imposed by local government authorities, which is different for the two emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. While there is no mandatory quarantine period for anyone flying into Dubai (unless a person tests positive), the Abu Dhabi government has imposed a 14-day quarantine on anyone entering the Emirate from outside the country. . A special concession has been made in the case of the IPL to reduce that to six days of quarantine, taking into account that the teams are operating within a bubble.
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