CRICKET West Indies and the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) will have a challenging time in making changes to an already tight schedule in order to allow the West Indies players to arrive in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the resumption of the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL).

The IPL was brought to a halt at the midway point of the tournament on May 4 after a surge in covid19 cases and deaths in India. Players and officials also tested positive.

The nine West Indies players in the tournament returned to the Caribbean within days including Trinidad and Tobago quartet Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Nicholas Pooran and Dwayne Bravo. The other West Indies players who were featuring in the IPL were Jason Holder, Andre Russell, Shimron Hetmyer, Chris Gayle and Fabian Allen.

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In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com
Why can't they just cancel until next yr?
The greed is real

IPL has a designated window, other people should not alter their schedule for them now: unless they are paid reasonably for doing so.

If some players think it's better to be playing IPL let them go, it would give opportunies to other players in the Caribbean.

In reply to dayne

agreed. let them go. Cant stop them anyway and you never know whose talent will emerge from the opportunity to play in their place in CPL. The bit of mystery will make CPL even more anticipated as we all know what those IPL guys can do.

It’s not unprecedented for foreign players in IPL to either leave IPL early to go on international duty, or arrive later in IPL after completing previous commitments.

If CPL ends on September 19 and IPL resumes September 18, then some players might miss a game or 2. No biggie. Few West Indians are guaranteed starting spots on their IPL teams these days.

The bigger issue is preparation for the T20 World Cup. One might argue that there can be no better preparation than playing IPL against the best players in the world in that format. But there’s also the aspect of team dynamics, especially if one of those players is the team captain.

But it won’t just be West Indies in that predicament.

Eoin Morgan is England’s captain
Jofra Archer is a premier bowler for England
Jos Butler, Ben Stokes, David Warner, Steve Smith, Ferguson, Pattinson, all play IPL and will be in the same boat.

In reply to imusic
Man why you mention Archer? You trying to draw out Raggs?

In reply to Walco

Lol. Raggs busy watching his blues in the CL final

In reply to imusic

Wasn Archer replaced due to his injury?

In reply to Maispwi

He was. But by September, if he not injured, don’t know if there’s a rule that says they can’t bring him back

In reply to imusic

..excellent perspective on the "issue"..much ado about nothing.