As the Dream 11 IPL 2020 in UAE is about to commence in a week, KKR’s indispensable players from England and Australia are still in England, playing in the bilateral ODI series between the two nations.
Kolkata Knight Riders is the team which consists of strong overseas players in its bench, which is pushed to wait for their overseas player to join their camp. Eoin Morgan and Tom Banton from England, and Pat Cummins from Australia are about to arrive in Abu Dhabi on September 17, right after they complete their national duties.
As the Abu Dhabi government has the mandatory six days quarantine rules, it was said that these players travelling from England might be missing the first match of their team on September 23, as their isolation period wouldn’t have been over by that time.
But the latest statement from KKR’s Chief Executive Officer Venky Mysore denotes that their Eng- Aus players don’t have to go through the six days quarantine as they are travelling from one biosecure bubble into another.
And he also said that they have been in talks with the authorities regarding the shortening the quarantine period of the three players to three days.
“While they are still negotiating with the authorities, we are reconciled to the fact that we may have to quarantine our three players. They arrive on September 17, but our first game is on September 23, by which time they would’ve finished their [concessional six-day] quarantine. So it’s worked out well, and it’s good for the tournament.” said Venkat Mysore in an interview with ESPN Cricinfo.
The idea of smooth transferring of players within two biosecure bubbles has made the IPL authorities to nod their heads. Credits to Venky Mysore, who bolstered the thoughts of Sanjeev Churiwala, RCB’s chairman.
Mysore said, “What we did was put a plan together and shared it with the medical team at the IPL, We told them, ‘they’re in a bio-secure bubble in the UK. What if we brought them on a sanitized charter flight, and we took care of all the elements of immigration, testing, contactless stuff, and everything to allow them to come right into a bubble here?’ To give credit to IPL, they took it very constructively, and they have a written Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for that, which says if you’re coming from a bubble to another bubble, you don’t need the mandatory quarantine period.”
This needs to go well in a merry way so that KKR can start their campaign much effectively with the in-form Tom Banton, Eoin Morgan, and Pat Cummins.
Tom Banton had been exceptionally doing well with the bat in the home season, while Morgan is in terrific touch, made some match-winning knocks for the British team. Pat Cummins is returning back from his six-month hiatus. Hopefully, the ODI series against the English team will put him back into his business.
With things getting revolved around these three players, KKR has another eye on the three players traveling from the Caribbean land. The KKR playing CPL players are Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, and Chris Green.
“We’re bringing all our players on a charter straight to Abu Dhabi. Even the smallest of detail like how they will go from hotel to airport – they go on a bus with a driver who is part of the bubble – straight to the tarmac. That is the level of detailing we have gone into, because of which they have waived the quarantine period.” said Venky Mysore about the three CPL players.
But the six days quarantine period of these players might not affect the KKR camp as they might be very much ready with their CPL experience. Along with that, this six days quarantine period can help them rest their cricketing muscles. So it can bring them to a better shape when they play the first match for the Kolkata based team.
