After the ongoing IPL 2021, New Zealand players might travel with the Indian cricketers for the World Test Championship (WTC) final in June. The country’s players’ union chief has indicated that they can’t come back home and then depart for England due to strict quarantine protocols.
New Zealand has selected a 20-member team for the two-match Test series in England starting from June 2 and the squad will be decreased to 15 for the WTC final against India, starting from June 18 at Southampton.
NZ Cricket Players Association chief executive Heath Mills said, “…they can’t very well come home, do the two weeks isolation and then go to England, so they’re going to have to be there (India) until the round-robin finishes, or the final series.”
“Then we’ve got other players who are coming home – logistically there’s not a lot of flights. It’s not easy to sort out the logistics. We’re working closely with NZ Cricket and they’re in touch with the BCCI and the ICC,” Mills was quoted as saying by stuff.co.nz.
“Whilst they’re anxious, they’re ok. No one has indicated yet that they want to go home.”
Mills said the players feel they are well looked after by their IPL franchises and safe in their bio-bubbles.
“There’s four teams in a hotel and the hotel is locked down. The challenge is when they transfer from city to city, then they need to put on the PPE gear and that’s when they’re probably most at risk.
“The players are in the safest place in India, in the team bubbles, which is the most important thing from my perspective.”