Seeks shortened quarantine

New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly Saturday said that the national team will tour Australia in December but called for a shortened quarantine period for the players. 

Australia has checked the spread of the Coronavirus except in Melbourne, its second-biggest city, which has witnessed a recent surge in cases. 

“Ya, ya, we have confirmed that tour. In December we will be coming. We just hope the number of quarantine days get reduced a bit,” Ganguly told a section of the Press. “Because we don’t want the players to go all that far and sit in hotel rooms for two weeks. It is very, very depressing and disappointing. And, as I said Australia and New Zealand have been in good position except Melbourne. So from that point of view we will be going there and hopefully the quarantine days will be less and we can get back to cricket,” he added.

By Friday, Australia, a nation of 25 million, had recorded just more than 9,000 COVID-19 cases, 106 of them fatal.

The West Indies squad spent 14 days in quarantine after landing in England on June 9 for the three-Test tour that began on July 8, marking the return of international cricket.

Virat Kohli’s India are scheduled to tour Australia for four Test matches in December-January. India won a four-Test series in Australia 2-1 in 2018-19.

India’s Test series victory two years ago was their first in Australia after 71 years of trying. But Australia were without top batsmen David Warner and Steve Smith, who both missed the series due to their ball-tampering bans.