Last Updated on 5 years by Charbel Coorey
CPL to host entire tournament in T&T: Players to take pay cuts | West Indies Cricket plan to stage CPL 2020 in Trinidad and Tobago
In the aftermath COVID-19, the Carribean Premier League (CPL) organisers are expected to stage the tournament entirely in Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad and Tobago is country which has handled the coronavirus pandemic most efficiently in the Carribean, with only 117 positive cases reported till date.
The tournament is slated to be hosted from 18th August to 10th September with the players expected to arrive on August 1 in Trinidad and Tobago in order to undergo the quarantine period directed by the Trinidad and Tobago government.
Michael Hall, the operations manager of the CPL wrote a letter to the various stakeholders of the tournament, as reported by ESPNCricInfo.
“We have taken the decision to stage the tournament (subject to final approval from the government of Trinidad & Tobago, which we expect next week). I can advise that the tournament period will be from August 1 to September 12, with the first matches on August 18 and the final on September 10.
Should the tournament take place, it will take place entirely in Trinidad & Tobago, which is the most successful country in the Caribbean in controlling the spread of the virus – recording just one new case since April 30 and just 117 total cases overall,” Hall wrote.
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The tournament will be played behind closed doors and the teams will be staying in a hotel which is supervised by the medical team of the tournament.
“One of the consequences the COVID-19 pandemic will have is that the CPL will be played behind closed doors in 2020. We were therefore faced with the very difficult decision of whether to play the tournament at all. [But] we also felt strongly that it is important for cricket to be seen to be getting underway again as well as to show the world that the Caribbean is open for business,” he added.
Compared to the previous edition, the players and match officials are expected to take a 30% pay cut. However, players below $20,000 will not be affected by the same.
“We accept we are asking players to give up a portion of their salary,” Hall added. However without such a gesture it will be impossible to run the tournament, so we need to be clear that non-acceptance of the proposed reductions will result in your clients already under contract being replaced, or if not already contracted, being removed from the draft list.”
To complete the tournament in the 23-day duration, there will be double headers on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
Written by Sarthak Karkhanis. Follow Sarthak on Twitter today.
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