After the indefinite suspension of Vivo IPL 2021 on Tuesday, English, Australian, South African, and New Zealand players are beginning to get back to their homeland. After multiple covid cases were detected in four franchises, BCCI decided to suspend the tournament. Australian batting coach of Chennai Super Kings, Mike Hussey was the latest person to test positive for covid-19. BCCI has already started the procedure of sending overseas players back to their home nations.
The Australian cricketers were facing difficulties at the camp as the Australian government has been strict with their regulations and norms. They have banned all flights from India till May 15, including flights involving Australian citizens and any breach will make them face a penalty of five year’s jail sentence. Although now Cricket Australia and BCCI have decided that the Australian players will quarantine in the Maldives or Sri Lanka till the controversial travel ban is lifted and then the players can take chartered flights back home. The Australian government has also imposed a mandatory 14 days quarantine upon arrival.
On Wednesday, Cricket Australia’s chief Nick Hockey said, “What we and the BCCI are working to do is to move the entire cohort out of India, where they will then wait until it’s possible to return to Australia. The BCCI has been working on a range of options. That’s now narrowed down to the Maldives and Sri Lanka. The BCCI are working through the final details of that at the moment and we expect that movement will happen in the next two to three days.”
England and Wales Cricket Board has announced that English players that participated in IPL 2021 will have to quarantine for 10 days in a hotel after arriving in the country and eight of the English players including Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Moeen Ali, and Curran brothers reached England on Wednesday morning. England captain Eoin Morgan, Dawid Malan, and Chris Jordan are yet to leave India, but they are expected to return by the end of this week.
South African government has much lenient rules as they just need a COVID negative report not more than 72 hours before the travel. If the person doesn’t provide, then he/she needs to home quarantine for 10 days. Even the New Zealand players need to complete a 14 days quarantine after arriving in the country.