New Delhi, Jan 3: The entire Indian cricket contingent, including the five players who are in precautionary isolation, will travel to Sydney for the third Test against Australia together in the same chartered flight on Monday.
The five players – vice-captain Rohit Sharma, opener Shubman Gill, stumper Rishabh Pant, pacer Navdeep Saini and batsman Prithvi Shaw – have not been barred from travelling with the team despite an ongoing investigation into an alleged bio-security protocol breach by them.
Cricket Australia, in a media release on Saturday, said it is probing the matter jointly with the BCCI after a video of the players at an indoor restaurant was posted by a fan, who identified himself as Navaldeep Singh on Twitter.
“If you carefully read the CA statement, they never said that it’s a breach. They said that they are seeking to determine if it’s a breach.
“So there is no restriction on these five players travelling with the team to Sydney. The entire team is flying tomorrow afternoon,” a senior BCCI official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
It is understood that the controversy has not gone down well with the travelling team and it is not amused with how Cricket Australia has so far handled the issue.
“Had the gentleman (the fan) in question not lied about hugging a player (Pant) on social media, this mess wouldn’t have happened. The players had gone inside because it was drizzling.
“This guy, without permission, shot a video and then paid the bill which no one asked him to and after that for publicity put a screen grab of bill,” the official said.
“You want to tell me that Cricket Australia will be taking a decision based on a purported video of a person who first lied and then retracted his statement,” he added.
For BCCI, the man under scanner is administrative manager Girish Dongre. Dongre is an employee of the BCCI and is supposed to handle and also keep the team abreast about the COVID-19 protocols.
“The players are not supposed to carry the protocol sheets or remember every fine line written,” another BCCI official said.
“There is a professional team of people who have to ensure that every rule is being followed and it was Dongre’s duty to ensure that players are told that they can’t get into an indoor area,” he added. (PTI)
