Melbourne, Nov 17: Cricket Australia on Tuesday informed that it remains “committed” to host the first Test of the upcoming four-match series against India in Adelaide despite the recent Covid-19 outbreak in South Australia.
South Australia announced the new Covid-19 cluster on Sunday, with the number of cases quickly growing to 17 on Monday.
Following this, the governments of Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory announced border closures, with Queensland to impose a two-week hotel quarantine on all visitors from Adelaide from 11.59pm on Monday.
In a statement, Cricket Australia said: “CA continues to monitor the situation in South Australia but remains committed to hosting the first Vodafone Test against India at the Adelaide Oval.”
The board said that players and staff from Western Australia, Tasmania and Queensland, who are part of the Australian ODI and T20Is squads, are traveling to Sydney on Tuesday to commence their preparation for both series.
Cricket Australia further confirmed that “none of the players in Adelaide for the Marsh Sheffield Shield visited the “hot spots” identified by SA Health”.
“CA has nonetheless instructed all players to undergo Covid-19 tests, with all results received thus far returning negative,” it added.
Nick Hockley, Cricket Australia’s interim CEO, said the actions were taken to ensure the summer schedule would not be compromised by recently announced border restrictions.
“CA has taken a pro-active approach and mobilised a number of people across the country over the past 24 hours to shore up our men’s domestic and international schedules. CA will continue to monitor the situation in South Australia and the resulting border restrictions around the country,” Hockley said.
“As ever, we will remain agile in addressing the challenges presented by the pandemic and remain more confident than ever of hosting a safe and successful summer across all formats,” he added.
India and Australia will play three ODIs and three T20Is beginning November 27. After that, the two teams will compete against each other for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, beginning with the day-night Test at the Adelaide Oval from December 17. (Agencies)
