Reports | IPL-bound Australian and England players request BCCI to reduce quarantine period

Around 21 players, currently part of an England-Australia white-ball series, will be boarding a chartered flight from Manchester to Dubai, touching base on September 17, to join their respective IPL franchises. However, they will have to spend 6 days in quarantine and will only be available from September 23, while the tournament gets underway from September 19.

According to reports, a star batsman has requested BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, on behalf of the players from both countries, to reduce the quarantine period to three days. A senior IPL source admitted that a plea has been made.

“Yes, the BCCI president has received a request. It may have been written by one of the players but it is something that all the English and Australian players, who are coming from the UK, feel,” a senior IPL source told PTI. 

Justifying the request of the player, the source explained that the players are already in a bio-bubble, first in Australia and then in the UK, hence, it makes sense that they should be allowed to transfer from one bio-bubble to another as they haven’t been in contact with the outside world.

“They have stayed at the Hilton hotel both in Southampton and Manchester, which is a part of the stadium. They have been tested every fifth day and even on the day of their departure from UK, they will be tested and also on first and third day of arrival. If you go through safety bubble that the ECB created, not even housekeeping was allowed in the rooms of the players. Also they are taking a chartered flight and not a commercial one. So they do have a point when they talk about entering from one bio-bubble to another,” said the IPL official.  

The only franchise, which won’t be affected by the six-day quarantine rule is Kolkata Knight Riders as the team would be opening its campaign against Mumbai Indians on September 23 and Mumbai Indians, who don't have any players returning from the series.