The first half of IPL 2021 was stopped in the middle of the season due to the spread of COVID-19 across the franchise camps. In starting few players were found positive in one franchise but later it was transferred to many teams which led to the cancellation of the marquee tournament.
Meanwhile, since the tournament was finished just after playing half the matches, BCCI has been looking for the windows to finish the remaining matches and League stages of IPL 2021. After looking a lot UAE was selected as the final venue for completion of the second leg of Indian Premier League 2021.
IPL franchise official (in ANI) said "We are looking to go to UAE post July 6th to finalize the arrangements ahead of IPL 2021".
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) June 24, 2021
However, few isolation difficulties might obstruct the schedule of IPL 2021. According to reports BCCI is closely working with authorities of Abu Dhabi, which is one of the three venues in UAE. Abu Dhabi’s latest rules of quarantine suggest that players arriving from green countries wouldn’t have to complete their quarantine.
It is a universal fact that India has just gone through a horrible second wave of COVID-19 doesn’t fall in the green list category and neither UK does where the main squad of India will be playing Tests against England. Among the major cricketing nations only Australia and New Zealand are on the green list. According to reports Abu Dhabi government has said that players from non-green countries will have to observe five-day quarantine if fully vaccinated and 10-day quarantine in case of no vaccination, as quoted by Cricbuzz.
BCCI trying to ease out the process of bio-bubble for players
The main problem between all this is that players coming from the UK after playing five-match Test match series against England starting on 4th August to UAE will have to complete their quarantine and it will clash with the scheduled IPL dates so Currently, BCCI is in talks with Emirates Cricket Board to ease out the bio-bubble rules for the cricketers traveling from the UK as it will be a direct bubble to bubble transfer. It will be interesting to see will the strict UAE government will listen to BCCI or not.
CWI President Ricky Skerritt has engaged with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) in talks for a tweaked CPL schedule to accommodate the second phase of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Read more⬇️https://t.co/Yy570oiP0O pic.twitter.com/9vcFkrUtPv
— Windies Cricket (@windiescricket) June 22, 2021
After all the bio-bubble rules and other things get sorted, the BCCI will be in the condition to take the proper decision of schedule and announce the full-fledged dates of the second half of IPL 2021. According to some reports, it is most likely to start from 19 September 2021 but due to many hindrances dates are being not announced yet.
