There is less than three weeks to go until the scheduled start of IPL 2020, and there is still no sign of the final tournament schedule. Whatever the reasons for that delay, “it has nothing to do with the Abu Dhabi border or quarantine restrictions,” according to a local cricket official.
As it happens, training is in full swing for the two Abu Dhabi-based teams thanks to the “installation of the airlift”. The Mumbai Indians and the Kolkata Knight Riders have been training since day eight of their arrival in the UAE, despite Abu Dhabi’s 14-day quarantine requirements, thanks to an “expanded quarantine facility” at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium. An area of 15,000 square meters has been cordoned off in the stadium, with 15 nets, for the two teams (to be used one by one), as well as an 11,000 square meter soccer field for physical training.
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“They have been training there since the eighth day of being in Abu Dhabi, so that’s seven days of training in what we call the ‘airlift facility.’ It’s a 15,000 square meter extension of their quarantine, a place for them to have “A full training session. And they go back to the hotel and use the team rooms, and come back to the airlift facility the next day, “Matt Boucher, CEO of Abu Dhabi cricket, explained to ESPNcricinfo.
“Once we receive those four test reports [one prior to reaching the UAE, and then three more in six days], the government approves that the teams expand their quarantine facilities outside the hotel with a very strict passage from the hotel to the bus and from the bus to Abu Dhabi Cricket [the stadium]. It is a strict facility, where only players and team support personnel are allowed entry.
“One team arrives first and trains for a while, two or three hours, and the other enters after that. The social distancing rules are in force, the sanitation rules are in force. We sanitize the entire facility before the next team arrives. , everything is refreshed and sanitized for the next team. It’s a completely sterile facility. “
Sections of the media have said that the Abu Dhabi government has granted special permission to teams, and others involved, to enter and leave the city, but that may not be the case. The emirate’s rules are the same as they have been for a while, but by the time the IPL begins, the mandatory 14-day quarantine will be over for anyone who has arrived in the UAE in the third or fourth week of August. So they would fall under the SOPs for the tournament as arranged by the BCCI, with only border controls regulated by the authorities when teams enter or re-enter Abu Dhabi.
Reports of an increase in cases in the city are also not based on hard numbers; While there has been an increase in the UAE figures, the data provided by the UAE is for the entire country and not for each emirate individually.
Therefore, the BCCI has not received any surprises regarding the situation on the ground, and the delay in the publication, or the elaboration, of the calendar is very likely for other reasons. An official from one of the teams says it is a consequence of positive Covid-19 tests at the Chennai Super Kings camp, which could still force BCCI to open the tournament with a different opponent for the defending champions of the Indians. from Mumbai.
As for Super Kings, the team’s CEO, Kasi Viswanathan, has said that the team is ready to take to the field on September 19 if necessary.
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