South African players likely to miss start of IPL 2020; RCB the most affected

As the 13th season of the Indian Premier League is about to start from September 19th, the teams are under heavy discussions to decide their strategy. As this time, it will be played in UAE, the dynamics of the game will be different. Also as the pandemic is still far from under control there will be certain restrictions that are to be acknowledged. As all the decisions to organize the event have been taken in a hurry, teams don’t have much time to decide on the plans.

A recent declaration from the South African government also hampered their plans as the country has been put under lockdown. International travel has been banned until the end of September. This means players like AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn, Quinton de Kock, and others won’t be able to join their respective teams during the early part of the showpiece event. The biggest buy among the South African players in this year’s auction was Chris Morris, who was bought by RCB in a whopping 10 crores deal.

Due to the same reason, none of the South African players except Imran Tahir went on to play the Caribbean Premier League. The CPL will kick-off from 18th August. Tahir, who is in Pakistan right now was able to arrange his travel on time. He is expected to join his IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings from the beginning as well.

RCB – The most affected side in IPL 2020

The highly affected team would be The Royal Challengers Bangalore who is yet to win their first title as three of their first choice overseas players belong to South Africa. Though the IPL franchises may get their players out of the rainbow country, they need to get a lot of clearances.

The officials might send a single flight for all the nine players in South Africa apart from Tahir. South African players are always one of the major attractions of the cash-rich league as they have a big-time fan following in India.

SA players with IPL contracts – AB de Villiers (RCB), Quinton de Kock (MI), Dale Steyn (RCB), Chris Morris (RCB), Kagiso Rabada (DC), Lungi Ngidi (CSK), Faf Du Plessis (CSK), Imran Tahir (CSK), David Miller (RR), Hardus Viljoen (KXIP).