After a barrage of speculations which lasted for four months, the BCCI finally gave the nod to the 13th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) which is scheduled to commence from September 19.
The final of the cash-rich league will be hosted on November 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 Middle-East 25 days prior to the tournament and be put in quarantine.
The overseas contingent of the IPL players are already beginning to receive their No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the respective boards.
New Zealand Cricket (NZC) became the first board to permit its players to travel to UAE in September.
Soon, Cricket South Africa (CSA) followed the path of the New Zealand cricket board 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 cases.
With 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, the 2020 edition of IPL might be played without the South African contingent.
Consequently, stars such as AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, 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 of 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).
