PORT OF SPAIN – Caribbean Pre­mier League (CPL) or­gan­is­ers on Thurs­day con­firmed that the en­tire con­tin­gent ar­riv­ing here this week had all test­ed neg­a­tive for COVID-19.

The 162-mem­ber par­ty, com­pris­ing play­ers, of­fi­cials and ad­min­is­tra­tors, touched down Mon­day to be­gin the buildup to the tour­na­ment which runs is set to bowl off Au­gust 18 un­til Sep­tem­ber 10.

Un­der the strict health pro­to­cols gov­ern­ing the tour­na­ment, the con­tin­gent will now un­der­go a 14-day quar­an­tine at the of­fi­cial ho­tel, while un­der­go­ing fre­quent COVID-19 tests.

Tour­na­ment op­er­a­tions di­rec­tor, Michael Hall, said the safe ar­rival and neg­a­tive tests of the trav­el­ling par­ty rep­re­sent­ed a ma­jor hur­dle cleared.

“It has been a colos­sal ef­fort by all in­volved to get every­one safe­ly in­to Trinidad and To­ba­go and we would like to thank every­one for their hard work and dili­gence,” Hall said.

“Our main pri­or­i­ty is the health and well-be­ing of all those in­volved in CPL and the wider pop­u­la­tion in the host coun­try, to have got through this first step with­out any cas­es is en­cour­ag­ing news, but we will re­main vig­i­lant.”

The con­tin­gent were al­so test­ed for COVID-19 pri­or to de­par­ture from their re­spec­tive ju­ris­dic­tions and then again on ar­rival here.

If any­one of the tour­ing par­ty tests pos­i­tive in the com­ing days, the per­son will be re­moved from the ho­tel and placed in iso­la­tion.

So­cial dis­tanc­ing will be en­forced through­out the tour­na­ment which will be played be­hind closed doors at Queen’s Park Oval in the cap­i­tal and the Bri­an Lara Sta­di­um in Tarou­ba, San Fer­nan­do.

Ti­tle-hold­ers Bar­ba­dos Tri­dents, along with last year’s los­ing fi­nal­ists Guyana Ama­zon War­riors, Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers, Ja­maica Tallawahs, St Kitts and Nevis Pa­tri­ots and St Lu­cia Zouks will clash over 33 games when the eighth edi­tion of the tour­na­ment gets un­der­way.

Ama­zon War­riors take on TKR in the open­ing game in Cou­va.

CMC