Last Updated on 5 years by Charbel Coorey

The IPL 2020 edition is set to start with quite a few hiccups. After Chennai Super Kings’ multiple Covid-19 cases, Delhi Capitals reported their first positive case of an assistant physiotherapist in their contingent. The franchise released a statement saying that the physio has been in quarantine and has not come in contact with other members of the team.

The individual had tested negative twice before he was diagnosed positive for the third time and is currently at the IPL isolation facility in Dubai for the next 14 days. “After 14 days of quarantine, he will have to produce two negative reports to be able to join the Delhi Capitals squad. The franchise’s medical team is in constant touch with him, and wishes him a speedy recovery”, said the statement.

Prior to this, Rajasthan Royals’ fielding coach Dishant Yagnik tested positive for COVID-19 before the team flew to Dubai. The former wicketkeeper-batsman’s case was detected on August 12 and stayed back in India while the support staff and players traveled to UAE. The team posted a picture of him on Twitter saying he has tested negative twice and is thus ready to join the squad.

On the other hand, CSK had a cluster of cases, infecting more than 10 people from their camp. Due to this, the commencement of their training sessions in Dubai was postponed to September 1. The infected members were shifted to a different hotel from the one the team was housed in. As the Super Kings finished runners up in 2019, the first match of the season is to be held between them and the defending champions Mumbai Indians. But the rise in cases in the camp had put everything on hold delaying the schedule as well.

An official statement from BCCI said that a total of 1988 RT-PCR COVID tests were carried out between August 20-28 across all participant groups in the UAE, which include players, support staff, team management, BCCI staff, IPL operational team, hotel and ground transport staff.