Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will have the services of their first-choice overseas duo, England captain Eoin Morgan and Australian quick Pat Cummins, for the team's opening game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 in UAE, said the franchise's chief executive, Venky Mysore.
Talking to ESPNcricinfo, Mysore said the knight Riders have negotiated for a reduced six-day quarantine in Abu Dhabi, down from usual 14 days.
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The arrangement will allow Morgan and Cummins to play their team's opening game on September 23 against defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI).
The IPL 2020 begins on September 19, just three days after the end of the ODI series in the UK between Australia and England.
The scheduling issue amid COVID-19 pandemic had led to fears of IPL-bound players from these two nations not being able to take part in the first week of the tournament. Especially for KKR, which is based in Abu Dhabi, where unlike Dubai and Sharjah, the quarantine period is compulsory for all tourists.
"While they are still negotiating with the authorities, we are reconciled to the fact that we may have to quarantine our three players," Mysore said.
"They arrive on September 17, but our first game is on September 23, by which time they would've finished their (six-day) quarantine. So it's worked out well, and it's good for the tournament."
Mysore said the BCCI and IPL governing council are being lenient on players moving from one bio-bubble to the other in UAE, such as the players arriving from the UK and those who took part in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
“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 UK. What if we brought them on a sanitised 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," Mysore said.
The franchise CEO added that the authorities will be provided all the details of the activity while transporting players in a charter flight.
“We’re bringing all our players on a charter straight to Abu Dhabi. Even smallest of detail like how they will go from hotel to airport - they go in a bus with 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,” he concluded.
