After a barrage of speculations which lasted for four months, the BCCI finally gave the nod to the 13th season of the Indian Pre൩mier League (IPL) which is scheduled to commence from September 19.
The final of the cash-rich league will be hosted on Novem🅠ber 18🤡. The tournament was moved to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with the overgrowing cases of COVID-19 cases in India.
As a precautionary measure, players will travel to the Midd🌺le-E🅠ast 25 days prior to the tournament and be put in quarantine.
The overseas contingent oﷺf the IPL players are already beginning to receive their No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the respectiꦅve boards.
New Zealand Cricket (NZC) became the first board to permit ♕its pl💞ayers to travel to UAE in September.
Soon, Cric🏅ket South Africa (CSA) followed the path of the New Zealand cricket boa✤rd and announced the participation of its players in the tournament.
However, similar to India, South Africa is currently fire-fighting with the exponential rise in COVID-19 ca🦩ses.
Witꦑh as many as 4,20,000 cases and 6🐓,000 deaths reported, the South African government decided to reimpose the nationwide lockdown for a few more months.
The lockdown also constitutes air-travel restrictions, which means, even with NOC from CSA, th🐟e 2020 ed🍎ition of IPL might be played without the South African contingent.
Consequently, stars such as AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, Imran T💖ahir, and many other Proteas stalwarts might🎉 not feature in the upcoming edition of the tournament.
De Villiers has been an integral part of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) lineup over the years, while Du 🌠Plessis and Tahir are slated to don the yellows ofℱ Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
Other stars from the Rainbow nation include Quinton de Kock (Mumbai Indians), Chris Morris (RCB), Dale Steyn (RCB) David Miller (Rajasthan Royals), Lungi Ngidi ꧃(CSK), Hardus Viljoen (Kings XI Punjab) and Kagiso Rabada (Delhi Capitals).
