IPL 2020 | Franchises plan to hire chartered planes to fly to UAE

The Apex Council meeting on Friday stayed away from declaring the final decision regarding the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League, with the BCCI waiting for the final call on the T20 World Cup to be out by the International Cricket Council. However, reports have emerged that the BCCI have already started preparing for the IPL to be played in the UAE and now a franchise official talked about their hotel preparations and arrangement of chartered flights from the safety point of view.

"I think most teams, if not all, are already looking at hiring chartered planes. You never know if we will 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. So, in such a scenario, the best way is to hire chartered planes as we will all have around 35-40 people flying to UAE. The number of members obviously increases a bit when you are headed outside and have restrictions in movement in times like these," a franchise official told PTI.

"To be honest, if you ask me, we as a franchise are looking at first-class travel for our players as that means better distancing. The sole reason is that we might not be assembling in India and be directly heading to UAE from each of our homes after doing necessary COVID-19-related tests. So, in such a scenario, you cannot expect the owners to pay for 8-10 chartered trips. But yes, if normal flights don't start operating then it is a different scenario," the official said.

With less than 60,000 total cases and around 8000 active cases, UAE is in a better place than India, something that plays a bigger role in the BCCI planning to shift IPL to the Middle-East. However, the Quarantine rule has to be followed particularly but another franchise official revealed that they are looking to do an isolation phase in India itself in a proper bio-secure environment that would propel them to an early start in the UAE.

"You need to be smart and plan early. We have been given the required inputs and are planning accordingly. We have actually decided on the hotel we wish to stay at in Abu Dhabi and how exactly we will go through the process of flying in and going through the necessary quarantine period once in UAE. We will obviously need to brush up with the then health guidelines of the country," a franchise official said.

"We are 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. We are 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 franchise official added.