CPL 2020: Players cleared to play after testing negative for COVID-19

The Caribbean Premier League (CPL) on Thursday announced that its players, officials and administrators have arrived in Trinidad and Tobago and that 162 people who travelled into the country have tested negative for COVID-19.

“They will now be kept in quarantine in the official hotel for 14 days during which time they will be tested regularly. If any member of the party is found to have contracted the virus they will be removed from the hotel and placed in further isolation in accordance with the current protocols in Trinidad and Tobago, but as of now all those who have arrived in Trinidad and Tobago are free from COVID-19,” the CPL said in a statement.

“It has been a colossal effort by all involved to get everyone safely into Trinidad & Tobago and we would like to thank everyone for their hard work and diligence. Our main priority is the health and wellbeing of all those involved in CPL and the wider population in the host country, to have got through this first step without any cases is encouraging news, but we will remain vigilant,” Michael Hall, Tournament Operations Director, said.

The CPL is thoroughly equipped to become the first major cricket league to begin amid the coronavirus pandemic from August 18 while the final of the tournament will be played on September 10.
The whole tournament will have as many as 33 games played in Trinidad and Tobago across two stadiums and behind closed doors. The first match will see last year’s runners-up, the Guyana Amazon Warriors, taking on the Trinbago Knight Riders on August 18.

All the foreign partakers will be tested for Covid-19 before leaving and then upon arrival followed by two more tests which will be done after a period of 7 and 14 days.

The tournament will take place in a bio-secure environment with a series of severe rules in place to shield those involved in the tournament and the extensive population from the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

This is the first time an Indian cricketer will be playing in the CPL. Mumbai’s 48-year-old leg-spinner Praveen Tambe, who recently retired from all forms of domestic cricket, will be playing for Trinbago Knight Riders.