IPL 2020: Schedule, Team Travel, Testing & Accommodation all you need to know

With just over a month remaining for the 13^th season of the IPL, slowly and steadily all the details of this year’s IPL are coming out. The 13^th season of the IPL is starting from 19^th September and will go on till 10^th November in UAE. BCCI has given a list of SOPs to the franchises which they have to follow before and during the IPL. So, let’s have a look at what are the plans in place and how everything is going to be arranged during the IPL.

Accommodation

According to the reports, each team has to stay in a different hotel. The BCCI has advised the franchises to book small hotels so that they can book the full hotel or else book a whole wing of a hotel so that the team members don’t come in contact with other people.

Some of the franchises are worried about the fact that it wouldn’t be ideal for the players to stay in a confined space for the whole duration of the IPL so they are looking for beachfront properties so that they can relax a bit.

Reports have suggested that KKR and MI are looking for such properties whereas CSK is fine with a normal confined hotel.

Base

Three venues have been decided for the IPL – Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai. All three venues are pretty close to each other and at most it is a 90 mins drive from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. So, all the teams will be given a base and they will be there for the whole tournament. They will travel to different locations on the match day and come back on the same day.

Some teams are planning to base in Abu Dhabi whereas CSK has decided to base in Dubai as they want to use the ICC’s training cricket ground.

Testing

Testing would be really important in this year’s IPL. According to the SOPs given by BCCI to all the franchises, the franchises have started testing their players and once their test is negative, they are quarantining the players in India.

Not only that but all the players will also be tested before they take a special chartered flight to UAE. On arrival in UAE, players will be tested again and once they test negative, they will go into a quarantine period where they have to undergo some more tests.

If all these tests are negative then they will be allowed to start their training. Even during the IPL, all the players will be tested regularly which will ensure that the biosecure bubble remains safe.