The Indian cricket team are fully committed to spend two weeks in quarantine in Australia in order to let their much-anticipated tour Down Under proceed as scheduled.
With the Covid-19 pandemic causing a lot uncertainty within the cricketing world about already-scheduled tours and series, Virat Kohli’s men and the whole Indian management staff are prepared to do this if it means their four Test matches, three ODIs and three T20Is at the end of the year will go ahead.
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BCCI treasurer Arun Singh Dhumal told the Sydney Morning Herald that if India wants to play cricket in Australia, then the two-week quarantine period will be the only way forward.
‘Two weeks is not that long a lockdown. That would be ideal for any sportsman because when you are in quarantine for such a long period, then going to another country and having a two-week lockdown it would be a good thing to do. We’ll have to see what the norms are post this lockdown,’ he said.
The two-month tour, which gets under way in December, is set to cost Cricket Australia A$300 million, roughly R3,5b.
It emphasises the massive sums of money on the line and given the financial devastation already caused by the coronavirus, Singh Dhumal believes it is of high importance to make the tour possible.
‘Given the revenue loss they will have on account of lockdown, post-lockdown they will want to have revenue and revenue most likely will come from ODIs or T20s much more than a Test match.
‘For any board, for that matter, there has been a lot of revenue loss on account of this lockdown and Covid-19, so they would need to think about that.’
