Virat Kohli and company ready to be in two-week quarantine to save Australia series
A senior official of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has said that the Virat Kohli-led Indian team is willing to go into a two-week lockdown period in order to save the Test series against Australia.
India are scheduled to play four-match Test series, three ODIs and a Twenty20I tri-series against Australia from October to December this year, but coronavirus pandemic has put the tour under clouds besides other international events.
However, BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal said that Kohli and company are willing to go into two-week isolation period to ensure cricket can resume.
“There is no choice – everyone will have to do that. You would want to resume the cricket.Two weeks is not that long a lockdown. That would be ideal for any sportsman because when you are in quarantine for such a long period, then going to another country and having a two-week lockdown, it would be a good thing to do. We’ll have to see what the norms are post this lockdown,”Sydney Morning Herald quoted Dhumal as saying.
Australia is currently observing a complete lockdown for six months, thus also restricting travelling within as well as outside the country. This means, India will require an exception to travel to Australia and go into self-isolation for two weeks in order to play matches.
However, India’s tour of Australia still has six months to go, which means international sports could resume by that time amid coronavirus pandemic and travel restrictions could be tweaked.
Meanwhile, Dhumal further said that it is difficult for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup–which is slated to take place in October in Australia– to go ahead as per schedule. He stated that it would not be wise to restart international cricket with such a showpiece event.
“They will have been out of cricket for a long time.Would you want to be without training for that long and straight away go and play (the) World Cup? That is a call every board has to take. It seems to be difficult,” he said.
Echoing similar views, England fast bowler Mark Wood said that he is ready to spend months in quarantine, even away from his family, if it means return of cricket in the world.
“Being away on tour for long periods of time you sort of get used to it.It would be very hard but as long as the environment is safe, my family are safe and everybody else there is safe then I’d be willing to do it,” he said.
Notably, all the cricketing activities across the globe are either postponed or cancelled due to coronavirus pandemic that has affected more than 39,35,000 people in the world and claimed the lives of 2,74,000 persons globally.
