Former India opener Sunil Gavaskar shared his thoughts on the growing doubt over the India vs Australia fourth Test match in Brisbane. Gavaskar said while the Queensland government is entitled to protect its people by imposing restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, one must also remember that the BCCI is also well within their rights of protecting the Indian cricket team.
“The Queensland Government is fully entitled to protect its people, and similarly I believe the Board of Control for Cricket India is fully entitled to protect its team. I think that’s something we must never forget,” Gavaskar was quoted as saying by 7 Cricket.
Gavaskar’s comments came after the Queensland government imposed a hard lockdown of three days despite the BCCI’s formal letter to Cricket Australia to ease the restrictions on Team India.
A cleaner at a quarantine hotel in Brisbane tested positive for the highly contagious U.K. variant of Covid-19, prompting the state government to take the drastic action.
“In Sydney, there are people coming to the ground and then going back and having dinner at a restaurant or having a gathering of 20, 30 people in a pub.”
Gavaskar said that Indian team is not unjustified in demanding that if the players are together at the ground for 10 hours, they should be at least allowed to mingle in the hotel.
“What they’re saying is they should also be allowed to do something similar. You could have a situation where the ball goes into the crowd, somebody from the crowd touches the ball. One can understand that. One can understand why they’re feeling that way,” added Gavaskar.
The BCCI has already written to Cricket Australia for relaxation of hard quarantine in Brisbane and the home board has given verbal assurances. But Queensland’s three-day hard quarantine rule has now made matters quite interesting.
