Cricket Australia Planning To Shift The 3rd And 4th Test After COVID-19 Outbreak

With Sydney witnessing an explosion of new COVID-19 cases, Cricket Australia has revealed an option that could be on the cards. Australia and India are in the middle of a blockbuster summer of cricket and understandably want to play the entire series as safely as possible. Cricket Australia could swap the venues for the third and fourth Test of the rubber with each other – meaning that Brisbane could host the third match followed by Sydney staging the fourth.

A total of 30 new COVID-19 cases got reported in Sydney and all are associated with an outbreak in the city’s northern beach suburbs. It caused the New South Wales government to impose restrictions on public and private gatherings. Victoria state declared Sydney as a hotspot and said it would close the borders from midnight to travellers from Australia’s largest city. Cricket Australia’s COVID-19 group will meet on Sunday to discuss the impact of the pandemic on the Test series.

The plan to swap the venues for the third and fourth Test is being considered in case Queensland state shuts its border with New South Wales. That would mean that players and television crews might not be able to travel from Sydney to Brisbane between the third and fourth Test. Australian batsman David Warner flew early from Sydney to Melbourne to quarantine himself before joining the squad for the Boxing Day Test. The southpaw is recovering from a groin injury that he suffered during the One-day series against India.

Cricket Australia unlikely to cancel the Sydney Test:

Yet another alternative plan that exists with Cricket Australia is that they could host consecutive Tests in Melbourne, which will stage the second match on the 26th of December. However, interim CEO Nick Hockley has already declared that they are monitoring the situation in Sydney and that their priority remains to play in Sydney.

“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 earlier as quoted by India Today.

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