IPL 2021: Five Ground Staff At Delhi Tested Positive For Covid-19; Placed In Isolation

The IPL 2021 has hit major roadblocks on Monday, which will hamper the progress of the tournament. After 2 Kolkata Knight Riders players, and 3 Chennai Super Kings staff members tested positive for covid-19, now 5 ground staff people at the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) have returned positive tests and have been immediately placed in isolation.

The Arun Jaitley Stadium has hosted four IPL 2021 matches so far, all being high-scoring encounters; it is scheduled to host the clash between Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday, and three more games after that.

CSK, who are also in Delhi, have cancelled their training session for the day ahead of their game against Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday.

KKR-RCB clash postponed after 2 players tested positive; 3 CSK staff members also return with a positive result

The first news of players contracting the virus broke on Monday morning as Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier, both part of the KKR squad, have returned positive tests. Hence, their match against Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore in Ahmedabad on Monday has been rescheduled.

This is the first incident of positive Covid-19 cases within the IPL bubble since the 2021 season started on April 9th, after early positive cases of Nitish Rana, Axar Patel, and Devdutt Padikkal.

It is believed that Chakravarthy recently left the IPL’s biosecure bubble through the official green channel to carry out a scan on his shoulder to a hospital – that’s where he might have been exposed to the virus. Apart from Chakravarthy and Warrier, the rest of the Knight Riders squad have returned negative tests.

Later it was reported that three members of the CSK IPL contingent – chief executive officer K Viswanathan, bowling coach L Balaji and a bus cleaner – have tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday; the rest have returned negative results.

According to ESPNcricinfo, all the three people in concern here took another covid test on Monday “to rule out the possibility of a false positive.” If they return positive results, then they must undergo a minimum of 10-day isolation outside the IPL bubble and return two negative tests before re-entering the bubble.

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