The ongoing Test series between India and Australia got marred by a controversy last week as the reports of visiting team expressing unwillingness to travel to Brisbane for the fourth Test emerged.
Team India’s reluctance to travel to Brisbane came after it was reported that due to strict health protocol rules in the state of Queensland, the Ajinkya Rahane-led side needs to undergo another round of hard quarantine with players not even allowed to venture out of their rooms during the Test match.
However, a report published in PTI suggests that the BCCI took up the matter and now it is understood that the cricketers can mingle in a bio-bubble inside the hotel and the Test match is on despite some unwarranted comments from a couple of Australian politicians.
Meanwhile, Australia skipper Tim Paine on Wednesday (January 6) acknowledged that "tension is boiling under the surface" ahead of the third Test in Sydney because of this controversy.
"I think it's boiling away, some stuff is starting to happen," Paine said during a virtual media conference on the eve of third Test, as quoted by PTI.
"It will be fascinating not just from cricketing point of view but also the tension boiling under the surface with lot of unnamed sources coming out from their camp as to where they are going to play their fourth Test, where they don't want to go ....So let's see how it goes," he added.
While no one has heard anything about the fourth Test getting shifted from the Gabba, the Australian captain said there is an element of uncertainty as the Indian board has the power to change things.
"No inside frustration but a bit of uncertainty because when you hear things like that coming particularly from India, which holds a lot of power in world cricket, its likely that it could happen."
For Tim Paine’s team, it hardly matters if the Test is played in Brisbane or Mumbai.
"For us, we just want to be clear on this Test match, we know the protocols and we know what's expected of us, we will focus on that this week and then whatever happens next week happens and we will adapt to it.
"We are not too fussed as to where the Test is being played and we couldn't care less if you rang up and said that it's in Mumbai. We will get onto a plane and we will go and play."
Paine answered diplomatically when asked if the alleged bio-bubble breach which Cricket Australia failed to prove, would have affected the Indian players.
"I am not very sure and you will have to ask the Indian guys. It hasn't affected us and we have spoken about it again. This year the protocols are different and you don't know whether others teams are breaching or not, we can't control. We can control how we go about it."
(With PTI inputs)
