IPL 2021: New Zealand Cricket confirms availability for phase 2

The COVID pandemic severely affected the health infrastructure and economy of the country. It also had an effect on the sports community in India, where the players did not get optimum training facilities due to the lockdown as well. The IPL 2021 was postponed indefinitely in April after the positive cases were being detected in different franchises of the competition. A month back, the schedule for second phase of IPL 2021, was finalized with tournament starting from 19 September and final being played on 15 April.

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New Zealand Players will be available for IPL 2021: NZC Chief

The New Zealand team have a scheduled tour to Pakistan in October to play 3 ODI’s and 5 T20Is. Due to this reason, there were speculations regarding the availability of New Zealand players for the second phase of IPL 2021.

As reported by Geo TV, NZC Chief David White said “New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson, Trent Boult, James Neesham, and Lockie Ferguson will feature in the second phase of the IPL 2021 in the UAE.” Additionally, red-ball player, Kyle Jamieson is likely to play for RCB as well.

The New Zealand Cricket Chief White stressed on the fact that the cricketers will give importance to the IPL as the tournament will be played in the same venue as of T20 World Cup, i.e United Arab Emirates.

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Will South Africa players miss first few matches of IPL 2021 Phase 2?

The South African players are likely to miss the first few matches of the IPL 2021 Phase 2. The Cricket South Africa announced on July 30 that the team will tour Sri Lanka to play 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is in September. The final match of the tour, 3rd T20I is slated to end on 14 September, 5 days before the resumption of second phase of IPL 2021. It is being doubtful that the UAE government would allow the bubble-bubble transfer amid rising cases across the world. If the players are not allowed to join the team directly, they will have to quarantine for a maximum of 10 days.

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