Cricket Australia’s interim chief executive Nick Hockley has shared that the BCCI is trying to arrange a charter flight for the Australian players who had taken part in the IPL 2021. They are likely to stay in Maldives or Sri Lanka before heading back home because of a travel ban on the passengers’ flight from India amid this crunch time of COVID-19.
However, the IPL-bound 40 Australian people, comprising players, support staff and commentators, could be flown to Maldives or Sri Lanka before boarding 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.”
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On Tuesday, the IPL was “indefinitely suspended” with immediate effect after multiple positive cases of COVID-19 emerged from Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Capitals, SunRisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings team as well. It started with KKR’s Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrior and later CSK’s bowling coach L Balaji, SRH’s Wriddhiman Saha and Delhi Capitals’ Amit Mishra have been reported positive as well which led the BCCI to take this decision.
On the other hand, Chennai Super Kings’ batting coach Mike Hussey, who has also tested positive for COVID-19, will stay back in the country and complete his 10-day quarantine. And, Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) chief executive Todd Greenberg has said that Hussey was in “good spirits” despite having effected by the deadly virus.
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“His symptoms are relatively mild, so he’s in for a stint of isolation in his hotel for at least 10 days, but his team have got some really good support systems around him, which is good,” Greenberg was quoted as saying in ‘Sydney Morning Herald’.
“This is a two-step process. The first step is getting them out of India and the next step is getting them safely home,” Greenberg said. “We’re still waiting to hear what the government are going to do post-May 15 and once we have that confirmation we’ll put the next start step in place.”
