Sri Lanka’s baseball coach Grant Flower and data analyst G T Niroshan have tested positive for COVID-19.
The Indian cricket team’s six-match limited-overs series against Sri Lanka was on Friday rescheduled due to a COVID-19 outbreak within the home team camp, with the primary ODI now starting on July 17 rather than July 13.
Sri Lanka’s baseball coach Grant Flower and data analyst G T Niroshan have tested positive for the dreaded virus on return from the uk , which has forced Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to increase the hard quarantine period from the stipulated three days.
“Yes, the series will now start from 17th of July rather than 13th. the choice was taken in consultation with SLC keeping the security and security of players in mind,” a senior BCCI official told PTI, confirming the event .
After lecture sources in SLC, it’s been learnt that new dates are still being chalked call at consultation with the BCCI. The tentative dates might be July 17, 19 and 21 for the 50-over games, while the three-match T20I rubber is probably going to start out from July 24.
“We are discussing a couple of options on the fresh itinerary,” a source in SLC told PTI.
As per the first schedule, the series was to start out with the ODI leg on July 13, followed by matches on July 16 and July 18. The T20I games were scheduled for July 21, July 23 and July 25.
The second-string Indian team, being led by Shikhar Dhawan with Rahul Dravid as chief coach, has completed its hard quarantine and has been training in Colombo.
The SLC source informed that each one the Sri Lankan players who came back from UK have tested negative.
“Once the contingent returned from the united kingdom , Grant tested positive on arrival in RT PCR on the primary day. All other players were then in their respective room (hard) quarantine. We removed Grant immediately in separate isolation zone. he’s asymptomatic,” the source added.
“Yesterday we tested the others once more and today G T Niroshan’s report came positive and he was also isolated. Since we didn’t receive the other positive reports as of now, it means the players who returned from UK have tested negative in their second RT PCR test.” The series is now being pushed back by four days despite the SLC keeping two groups of players in separate bio-bubbles.
“Apart from the UK-returned batch, we’ve created two more bio-bubbles in Colombo. In one bubble there are 13 players and in another there are 26. So, 39 players are available to select a squad from. But BCCI would really like to play the primary team for obvious reasons,” the SLC source said.
Since the Sri Lanka white-ball team doesn’t have any commitments after this, the rescheduling wasn’t an enormous problem.
With all the games at the Premadasa Stadium, the dates are often kept flexible as no travelling is involved.
The Indian team is staying at its preferred location for the last three decades — Taj Samudra.
While Niroshan’s conformation was given on Friday, Sri Lanka’s baseball coach Flower tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, 48 hours after the squad’s arrival from England.
All the opposite players who are quarantining have also been tested.
Before testing negative, Sri Lanka’s squad had faced an anxious await the results of their RT-PCR tests on returning home, following a COVID-19 outbreak within the England squad after the ultimate match of their tour in Bristol on Sunday.
The Lankans are during a little bit of turmoil even otherwise with a dispute over contracts and an ongoing inquiry into bio-bubble breach by three players during the britain tour adding to their woes.
