Keith Rowley, prime minister of Trinidad & Tobago, believes hosting the CPL will not be a risk with regards to the spread of of Covid-19 as the tournament will be played in a biosecure environment.

The entire tournament, from August 18 to September 10, is scheduled to take place in T&T across two stadiums and behind closed doors to ensure proper protection against the pandemic.

“The CPL games are quite different, that’s a bubble,” Rowley said. “Everything that will go on around the CPL will go on in a bubble that does not interact with the local population.

“They will come into the country under the protocols of entry, all having tested negative before. When they come here they are confined to the Hilton Hotel and that becomes a bubble for them. Then they will go to a venue to play the game where they will not interact with the population and so the CPL is a bubble that has nothing to do with what goes on in the country.”

T&T has recorded a total of 169 cases and eight deaths until July 31st, and there are 29 current active cases, according to government data.

As per the agreement between the CPL and the T&T government, all the participants – squads and team management of the six franchises, the organisers and the rest of the crews – will need to self-isolate for two weeks before they board their flights, and for two weeks upon arrival in T&T.

All the overseas participants will be tested for Covid-19 before departure and then upon arrival followed by two more tests – seven days and 14 days after their arrival.

Rowley also said that breaching of biosecurity protocols by players and staff will strictly not be tolerated. “Don’t play you can come out from that protocol and decide to take a drink down the road or whatever, we’re not tolerating that,” he said.

“The same way we opened factories and keep them open, we opened the stores selling cloth…the CPL is just another business aspect in the country, in this case it’s cricket, it’s televised, the benefit we get from it is that we promote the country. We’ve established very strict protocols.”