The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday revealed that two players are among a t total of 13 who have tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after it was revealed that over a dozen members of the Chennai Super Kings team have been infected by the virus in Dubai. The BCCI have confirmed that 13 personnel out of the total contingent that have traveled to United Arab Emirates for the IPL have tested positive for COVID-19. The Indian board also revealed that two out of the 13 that tested positive are players. As per the IPL Health and Safety protocol all participants were tested for coronavirus and more tests will be conducted regularly during the course of the season. "13 personnel have tested positive of which 2 are players. All the affected personnel as well as their close contacts are asymptomatic and have been isolated from other team members. They are being monitored by the IPL Medical Team," BCCI statement said. A statement from the BCCI said that a total of 1,988 RT-PCR tests were carried out between Aug. 20-28 across all participant groups in the UAE. It said, it has put in place stringent health and safety protocols for the Dream11 IPL 2020 Season, which is scheduled to start from Sept. 19 in the UAE. Meanwhile, Chennai Super Kings' Suresh Raina has returned to India due to personal reasons and will miss the entire IPL 2020 season, the franchise tweeted on Saturday. "Suresh Raina has returned to India for personal reasons and will be unavailable for the remainder of the IPL season. Chennai Super Kings offers complete support to Suresh and his family during this time," CSK CEO KS Viswanathan was quoted as saying on the team's official Twitter handle. BCCI announces Unacademy as official partner for IPL The Indian Premier League Governing Council (IPL GC) announced India's largest learning platform Unacademy as official partner for IPL beginning with the 2020 edition, which will be held in the UAE from Sept. 19 onwards. The partnership will cover three seasons of IPL. The Bengaluru-based edutech firm, Unacademy, aims to build an online knowledge repository for multilingual education by bringing expert Educators together from across the globe. Brijesh Patel, chairman, IPL, said about the association: "We are pleased to have Unacademy on board as the 'Official Partner' of the Indian Premier League 2020 to 2022. IPL is the most watched cricket league in India and as a homegrown Indian edutech company we believe that Unacademy can create a huge positive impact on the aspirations of the audience watching, especially the millions of Indian youth who are seeking inspiration in their careers." Karan Shroff, VP - marketing, Unacademy, said: "We are delighted to become the official partner of IPL. Unacademy is a high-intensity brand that has disrupted the education and learning market with innovations and broken geographical barriers for Learners and Educators. "The IPL has a similar history of disruption and innovation that have not only brought cricket fans closer to the game but also catapulted it to become one of the top sporting events in the world. With this partnership, we will double-down on our efforts to make Unacademy the biggest brand in the consumer-internet space in India. We thank the BCCI and IPL for the opportunity and look forward to a long and fruitful partnership." — Agencies
