IPL 2020: Six-Day Isolation Period Likely For Australian Players Arriving From UK

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has forced all the cricketing bodies and officials to impose a mandatory quarantine period and IPL falls under the same. While the players who reached the UAE much earier for the marquee tournament seemed to have completed their isolation period, a few Australian players remain the odd one out, especially the one in England at present. According to Eric Simons, those players are unlikely to undergo any leniency.

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Australia and England are battling it out in the limited-overs leg in the United Kingdom currently. The T20 series between the two sides concluded which the hosts won while two more ODIs remains to be completed. The likes of Steve Smith, David Warner Josh Hazlewood, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Adam Zampa, and others will head straight to the UAE from England and have been in the bio-secure bubble throughout.

Eric Simons, who is the bowling consultant of Chennai Super Kings, said that although it’s not confirmed yet; however, Australians might have to self-isolate themselves and test negative for COVID-19 on the first, third and sixth days before joining the team.

“We are hearing – although it’s not confirmed yet – that they will also have to self-isolate in their rooms for six days and produce negative tests on the first, third and sixth days before they can join us,” Simons said as quoted by Times of India.

Eric Simons understands that stringent protocols are understandable for IPL:

The South African hoped that Australian players might not have to deal with quarantining themselves since they are going from one bio-secure bubble to another. However, not to take risks in a marquee competition like the IPL is understandable and instead opt for all the precautionary measures. He added that Chennai has plenty of talent in their repertoire apart from ‘ageless’ MS Dhoni.

“We had hoped that they could all move from their current bio-secure bubbles into ours but it seems likely that there will be no ‘leniency’, which is understandable. Apart from our brilliant Indian players, led by the ageless MS Dhoni, we do have Shane Watson, Faf Du Plessis, and Lungi Ngidi in full training so there’s no shortage of talent,” he added.

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