Indian Premier League (IPL) is in danger as the coronavirus outbreak has triggered the event. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is constantly working to somehow start the game on any of the five expected dates. On Tuesday (17th March), the owners of the IPL franchises had a meeting about the same where an official revealed that they are ready to quarantine foreign players for 14 days.
The statement came after the Indian government has made compulsory for all passengers who have come from a foreign land to quarantine themselves for 14 days.
Speaking of the same to IANS, an IPL official related to the development informed that all franchises are ready to quarantine the foreign cricketers for the given period once the government issue the visa of players.
“Yes, the fresh advisory calls for 14-day quarantine for travel from some countries and if the stance remains the same post-March 31, that shouldn’t be an issue. If we get a clearance from the government and visas are issued, then quarantining the players shouldn’t be a big deal. In such a scenario, we can fly them into the country in the first week of April and follow the process of 14-day quarantine.
“But first, the foreign players need to be given the visa and that is why we need to wait till March 31 to see what the government decides going forward.”
To curb the expansion of dangerous virus, the government has suspended all the past visas and has informed that no further visas will be issued till 15th April.
The fate of IPL 2020 is still doubtful
Further, the official informed that there was no decision made with regards to the fate of the tournament. However, the meeting was to plan for the current situation.
The offical said, “No decision was made and to be honest, the idea wasn’t to take a call. It was aimed more towards understanding the general scenario and how the coronavirus outbreak is impacting the world. It was more about taking stock of the situation. But, one thing that we did discuss was that foreign players will need a 5-day window to acclimatise once they arrive in India.”
In the coronavirus scare, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has informed that the two-month-long IPL 2020 can be the truncated and there will be more doubleheaders because of the shortage of time period.