Crick­eters com­ing in­to the coun­try to take part in the Hero Caribbean Pre­mier League (CPL) T20 tour­na­ment which bowls off on Au­gust 18, has been warned by Prime Min­is­ter Dr. Kei­th Row­ley that they must abide by the strict Covid-19 pro­to­col that they have signed be­cause they will not be able to leave the 'Bub­ble' and run away for a drink.

The Prime Min­is­ter made the an­nounce­ment dur­ing the ques­tion and an­swer ses­sion of the Min­istry of Health week­ly coro­n­avirus (Covid-19) pan­dem­ic press con­fer­ence at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre in St Ann's on Fri­day.

Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley said, “On­ly this morn­ing the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and the Min­is­ter of Health was in­struct­ed to make sure that it is writ­ten in the arrange­ments that if any play­er breach­es those pro­to­cols such per­son would come un­der ex­clu­sion and would not be al­lowed to par­tic­i­pate in the coun­try’s af­fairs."

He said, "The CPL is a bub­ble that will not be af­fect­ing the pop­u­la­tion and hence a play­er can­not leave that bub­ble and go down the road for a drink. We are very se­ri­ous about this. Every­thing that will go on around the CPL will go on in a bub­ble that does not in­ter­act with the na­tion­al pop­u­la­tion. They would be com­ing in­to the coun­try un­der the pro­to­cols of en­try all hav­ing test­ed neg­a­tive be­fore and even in the ho­tel groups of sev­en [will be re­quired] and af­ter sev­en days they will move on."

He con­tin­ued, "They will then go to the venue where they will not be able to mix with the pop­u­la­tion. It is just like the way we re-opened fac­to­ries and cloth stores. It is be­ing op­er­at­ed in a bub­ble and it will be just that, away from the pop­u­la­tion."

He added that CPL will be pay­ing for their pres­ence in the coun­try. "CPL will be pay­ing for their pres­ence here and for their ser­vices. It is some­thing we need at the mo­ment."

At the mo­ment most of the of­fi­cials and in­ter­na­tion­al play­ers have ar­rived in St. Lu­cia where they are be­ing housed by San­dals Re­sorts In­ter­na­tion­al. They will then come over to Trinidad on Au­gust 3 on a spe­cial CPL Char­ter Flight. They will then go straight to the Hilton Ho­tel where they will be in self-iso­la­tion for sev­en days be­fore be­ing al­lowed to join us with their en­tire squad to pre­pare for the tour­na­ment. Af­ter sev­en days they will be test­ed again be­fore be­ing al­lowed to as­sem­ble in their groups.

The Hero CPL T20 tour­na­ment will place match­es at both the Queen's Park Oval in Port-of-Spain and at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my.

The six fran­chis­es are the Bar­ba­dos Tri­dents, Guyana Ama­zon War­riors, Ja­maica Tallawahs, St Kitts and Nevis Pa­tri­ots, St Lu­cia Zouks and Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers.

The com­pe­ti­tion will bowl-off on Au­gust 18 and ends on Sep­tem­ber 10. The open­ing match takes place be­tween the Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers and the Guyana Ama­zon War­riors at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my in Tarou­ba, San Fer­nan­do from 10 am fol­lowed by the de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons the Bar­ba­dos Tri­dent against St Kitts and Nevis Pa­tri­ots from 5:30 pm.