Chennai Super Kings (CSK) bowling coach, L. Balaji and a member of the team’s service staff have tested positive for COVID-19 as the list of infected people in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 keeps on increasing. However, the CSK CEO, Kasi Viswanathan, however, have tested negative on the Rapid Antigen Test and subsequently on the more conclusive RT-PCR test.
The tournament has already witnessed the postponement of the game between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. It is uncertain how they contracted the virus inside the bio-bubble but the reports of Cribuzz have stated that the duo returned positive results on Monday (May 3) from their latest RT-PCR tests.
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As per IPL’s Standard Operating Procedures, Balaji and the service staff member have been isolated from the team outside the team bubble for 10 days and will be allowed to rejoin upon returning two negative results.
Latest from @ChennaiIPL – the team CEO has tested negative for COVID-19, L Balaji and a service staff member are positive. Full details here 👇👇
— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) May 3, 2021
Incidentally, Balaji was in the CSK dugout during the team’s last match which took place in Delhi against Mumbai Indians (MI) on Saturday. It remains to be seen if their fixture list will be tweaked as well. As of now, the team is scheduled to lock horns with Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Delhi on Wednesday (May 5).
This is the second instance of positive Covid cases emerging from the CSK camp. In IPL 2020, Deepak Chahar and Ruturaj Gaikwad were among those to test positive during the virus outbreak in the team bubble.
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In a press release earlier, BCCI had said, “Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier were found to be positive in the third round of testing in the last four days. All other team members have tested negative for COVID -19. Both the players have isolated themselves from the rest of the squad. The Medical Team is in continuous touch with the duo and is monitoring their health. Meanwhile, the Kolkata Knight Riders have now moved towards a daily testing routine to identify any other possible cases and treat them at the earliest.”
