Cricket Australia on Tuesday airlifted players, including Test skipper Tim Paine and star batsman Marnus Labuschagne, to New South Wales from Adelaide in an attempt to save the series against India as a coronavirus outbreak in South Australia threatened the upcoming summer.
As Western Australia, Queensland and Tasmania closed their borders to South Australia on Monday, the country’s cricket board brought players from Australia’s white-ball, Test match and Australia A squads into Sydney from Adelaide to ensure that the upcoming fixtures of the 300 million dollars season remain unaffected.
“CA has taken a proactive approach and mobilized a number of people across the country over the past 24 hours to shore up our men’s domestic and international schedules,” CA’s interim chief executive Nick Hockley was quoted as saying by ‘ESPNCricinfo’.
“I would like to thank the players and staff for their understanding regarding the changes to their travel schedules and for their commitment to ensuring the summer of cricket is a huge success.”
Besides Paine and Labuschagne, the list of players relocated include their colleagues Matthew Wade, Travis Head and Cameron Green among others.
Despite the spike in COVID cases and developments related to it, CA maintained that the Adelaide Oval will host the first Test of the summer against India from December 17.
