BCCI to help arrange charter flights for Australian players via Maldives or SL while eight England players return home

Cricket Australia's interim chief executive Nick Hockley on Wednesday said that the BCCI is working to arrange a charter flight for IPL's Australian recruits, who are likely to stay in the Maldives or Sri Lanka before heading back home because of a travel ban on the Covid-19 ravaged India.

The IPL's 40-strong Australian contingent, comprising players, support staff and commentators, could be flown to the Maldives or Sri Lanka before getting a connecting flight for home.

"What the BCCI is working to do is to move the entire cohort out of India where they will wait until it's possible to return to Australia," Hockley told reporters in Sydney.

"The BCCI has been working on a range of options. That's now narrowed down to the Maldives and Sri Lanka. The BCCI is committed not only to the first move but also to putting on a charter to bring them back to Australia."

Meanwhile, eight England players returned to London on Wednesday after the abrupt suspension of the Indian Premier League (IPL), with tournament organisers planning an airlift to the Maldives or Sri Lanka for the stranded Australian cohort.

Hours after the lucrative cricket league was suspended on Tuesday because of India's Covid-19 crisis, the English members of the Delhi Capitals squad rushed to Delhi from Ahmedabad to catch a flight to Heathrow.

Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Sam Billings, Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali, Jason Roy and Curran brothers Sam and Tom landed on Wednesday morning, an England spokesman told Reuters.

"They will now quarantine in government-approved hotels," he said.

England's limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan, batsman Dawid Malan and all-rounder Chris Jordan would leave India in the next 48 hours, he added.

While the Indian cricket board (BCCI) has promised safe passage for the players and officials, New Zealand Cricket said all of their players were isolating in team hotels in India.

An NZC spokesman said captain Kane Williamson and several of his teammates had already been booked to join the rest of the test side in England next month.

"We haven't got the finer details of that sorted yet. We're working now with the ECB (English cricket board) and BCCI to arrange flights to get them over to England," the spokesman said.

New Zealand players' union boss Heath Mills said the cricketers were "pretty anxious now and pretty keen to come home".