West Indies and Australia Cricket Series to Resume on Sunday AEST | Fusion - WeRIndia

On Thursday, the second One-Day International between the West Indies and Australia at the Kensington Oval was canceled at the last minute due to COVID-19 concerns. Cricket West Indies only released a statement that said, “The second ODI between West Indies and Australia has been postponed due to a positive Covid-19 test result from a non-playing member of the West Indies team.

“This decision was taken after the toss at Kensington Oval once the result was known due to the Covid-19 protocols. All members of both teams and match officials will be retested today. The established Covid-19 protocols stipulate that all members of both teams and match officials will return immediately to the team hotel and will be re-tested later today.

“They will remain in isolation in their hotel rooms until their PCR test results are returned. A decision on when the match will be replayed will be made at a later date once the test results are known.”

This made many cricket fans feel stress and concern as they began to wonder whether the said ODI will even take place at all. However, based on recent reports, fans can continue preparing to watch the ODI live and bet on it on Indian local betting sites as it is reset to continue on Sunday morning AEST, just two days before the series finale.

The Suspension of the Australia ODI Series Against West Indies

When the announcement was made about the suspension of the said ODI match, the International Cricket Council (ICC) also announced that all personnel inside the bio-secure bubble for the series are required to be placed in isolation.

The postponement happened after Alex Carey won the toss and chose to bat first. Initially, there only seemed to be a delay at the start of the match but later on, the players were seen returning to their dressing rooms.

The chief executive of Cricket West Indies also said that he was hopeful that the results of the PCR tests of everyone in the bubble should be available by Friday morning. If this is the case, they should be able to immediately decide on when the remaining two ODIs will continue.

West Indies fast bowler Ian Bishop tweeted about how unfortunate the situation was. He said that it’s the risk taken in these testing times and hoped that the person who is infected is not too adversely affected.

The Aftermath

On local times, the ODI series will resume with the last two matches on Saturday and Monday. This was confirmed after no other COVID-19 infections were detected after the latest round of testing of all 152 people included in the bio-secure bubble.

Before the postponement, the toss already happened and it is unclear whether the result of that toss will be followed on the continuation of the ODI. The same goes for whether the same teams originally selected for the second ODI on Thursday will be the same.

Cricket West Indies already suggested that Australia should bat first as it was Captain Alex Carey who won the toss on Thursday. However, there is no official confirmation about this yet. According to reports, the ICC has already been contacted about this for clarification.

Meanwhile, Cricket West Indies has also confirmed that the person who tested positive for the virus is no longer part of the bio-secure bubble. However, there are reports that the medical staff has already been seeking clarification on the positive result that the staff got after testing. They are wondering if it is a historical infection or a false positive.

In a statement, Cricket West Indies president Ricky Skerrit appears to be thankful for the cooperation they received from everybody. Skerrit said, “We want to thank our counterparts at CA for their co-operation in this matter as we look to get the games going again. Special thanks to our CEO Johnny Grave, Chairman of Cricket Australia, Earl Eddings, his CEO Nick Hockley along with our respective medical and operations teams.

“It has been a challenging two days and we have worked very swiftly and safely, following all the established medical protocols, to make sure that all necessary precautions are in place to ensure that we can go ahead to resume play safely, tomorrow. We will continue to monitor the situation and respond accordingly.”

Australia has already won the first game of the three-match ODI series last Tuesday. Many fans are hoping that after the threat of finishing the remaining matches, the scheduled matches on Saturday and Monday will be uninterrupted.

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