Tuesday’s match between Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad scheduled to go ahead
Wednesday’s IPL game between the Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals has been rescheduled after the Super Kings informed the organisers that the squad had gone into a week-long quarantine from Monday.
K Viswanathan, the Super Kings’ chief executive officer, told ESPNcricinfo that the franchise had written to the IPL on Monday informing them that the entire Super Kings contingent was isolating immediately after it emerged two people, including bowling coach L Balaji, had tested positive for Covid-19 after yesterday’s round of tests.
It is the second match to be rescheduled after Monday’s game between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Kolkata Knight Riders was also postponed after the Knight Riders’ spinner Varun Chakravarthy and seam bowler Sandeep Warrier tested positive for Covid-19.
Incidentally, Viswanathan was originally part of the three people to test positive in the tests conducted on May 2, which was a day after the Super Kings lost a last-ball thriller to defending champions Mumbai Indians in Delhi. Then, yesterday’s round of follow-up testing cleared Viswanathan, but Balaji and the cleaner of the team’s bus tested positive for the second time in two days.
“The IPL SOPs say if any member of the team is infected the rest of the group needs to isolate for seven days. So we have informed the IPL on Monday,” Viswanathan said.
Viswanathan confirmed that the rest of the Super Kings’ contingent had also been tested on Monday and everyone barring Balaji and the bus cleaner had cleared the tests.
Mumbai vs Sunrisers to go ahead on Tuesday
Tuesday’s match between Mumbai and the Sunrisers Hyderabad is set to run as per schedule. There were questions whether the match should go ahead for two primary reasons. First, Mumbai had played the Super Kings on Saturday with Balaji in the dugout. Although all members of the Mumbai franchise were subsequently tested, there was lingering concern whether they, too, should have isolated.
The second reason was some members of the groundstaff at the Arun Jaitley Stadium had tested positive. The Delhi & Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) president Rohan Jaitley confirmed there was no positive case among the group of staff members that had been present over last weekend’s matches. Mumbai and the Sunrisers did not train at the venue on Monday.
Nagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo