Mumbai: With the IPL 2021 (Indian Premier League) suspended indefinitely, eight England cricketers, including, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran and Jos Buttler arrived at the Heathrow airport on Wednesday.
The other players who returned from India after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and IPL Governing Council decided to postpone the tournament on Tuesday following several COVID-19 cases inside the bubble, are, Tom Curran, Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali, Jason Roy and Sam Billings.
According to skysports, the remaining three - Dawid Malan, Chris Jordan and Eoin Morgan -will leave India in the next couple of days. All the arriving players will have to undergo quarantine in government-approved hotels for 10 days. In a sigh of relief, all the English players had tested negative before departing India and were in self-isolated after the tournament was postponed.
According to reports, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) was in regular touch with the players, providing support and advice on a daily basis after some players, including England’s World Cup winning captain Eoin Morgan, had expressed anxiety over the severe COVID-19 situation in the country. Morgan (Kolkata Knight Riders), Bairstow and Jason Roy (SunRisers Hyderabad), Moeen Ali and Sam Curran (Chennai Super Kings) are all part of the franchises that reported positive cases in their contingent.
KOHLI JOINS COVID RELIEF INITIATIVE
India and Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli was pictured in Mumbai. The Run-Machine Kohli has joined the COVID-19 relief initiative in Mumbai. Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, Yuva Sena member Rahul N Kanal shared images featuring the RCB skipper which reveal that he has started work towards the COVID-19 relief. He is also expected to join his wife Anushka Sharma's COVID-19 support movement and the details of the initiative will be made public soon.
UK-bound NZ players to remain in India till May 10
New Zealand players and staff involved in the IPL 2021, including skipper Kane Williamson, are likely to stay in India at least till May 10 before departing to England for national duty, their players' union chief stated on Wednesday. The remaining players as well as the support staff in various IPL teams and commentators could return home by charter flights arrange by the respective franchises, New Zealand Cricket Players' Association head Heath Mills said. Mills is expecting a revision in the travel restrictions for inward travellers from India by the British government. Apart from Williamson, Tom Seifert, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult are some of the Kiwi players who were part of the IPL 2021.
WHAT ABOUT T20 WORLD CUP
As the IPL 2021 was suspended, one inevitable question is circulation amongst the cricket world: What about T20 WC? Meanwhile, reports are coming that the BCCI is quite positive that the ICC Men's T20 World Cup will not be shifted out of India and will go ahead as per the plan. “We are confident that the situation will improve in the coming days and the World Cup would go ahead in India as planned,” News agency ANI quoted an unnamed BCCI official as saying. “We have zeroed in on nine venues and preparations are on and considering that we have quite a few more venues across the country, we can prepare back up venues within the country itself so that we do not burden the health infrastructure for a particular state or another in the eventuality that the situation has not returned to normal by the time of the showpiece event,” he added.
Some reports also state that the global event of the cricket may be shifted to UAE.
