Australia vs India 2020-21: Cricket Australia Clears The Air Over Sydney Test After Massive COVID-19 Outbreak

While Sydney has witnessed a sudden rise in the COVID-19 cases, Cricket Australia has assured that they are continuing to monitor the situation. The news has emerged amid Australia’s blockbuster summer against India and as per schedule, Sydney will host the third Test of the season. Cricket Australia expects that the might likely not shift to any other venue.

The COVID outbreak in Sydney had an impact on the broadcasters with former Australian speedster and present Fox commentator Brett Lee returning home to Northern Sydney. Two Sydney-based based members of the broadcasting team also returned home while two more decided to return to the hotel. The ongoing first Test is currently taking place in Adelaide while Melbourne will stage the Boxing Day Test.

Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley revealed the discussions and meetings amongst their medical experts which is the reason why their players have been in the bubble throughout. Hockley stated that they are not panicking and keeping the situation supervised apart from learning from other countries as to how they have done it.

“There’s been lots of discussion and meetings of our medical experts, but this is the reason why throughout the summer we’ve had our players in bubbles in the hub. We’re monitoring the situation; we’re not panicking at all, staying calm; t’s really watch, wait and see and I think the governments around the country have handled the pandemic so well, so we’ll watch, learn and stay in touch,” Hockley said as quoted by Times Now.

If the game can be played safely in Sydney, we’ll play there: Cricket Australia

Nick Hockley further said that their priority is to play in Sydney and the health authorities are doing everything they can to make it happen. Cricket Australia’s top boss added that they have got all the contingency plans in place and revealed there has been a decrease in the case count.

“If the game can be played safely (in Sydney) then we’ll play it there. That’s our starting point, so it’s working with the health authorities to ascertain that. We started out thinking how to play the full series as safely as possible, and we’ll take the same approach over the coming days and weeks. We’ve got contingency plans around a whole range of different options, and we’ve had to be agile all the way through. We were encouraged that it was 17 cases yesterday and ten today, and we’ll see how that plays out over the next 72 hours,” he added.

Also Read: Dark Clouds Loom Large Over India-Australia Series As Sydney Witnesses COVID-19 Outbreak