India’s ongoing Test series against Australia has been marred by a controversy as the reports of visiting team expressing unwillingness to travel to Brisbane for the fourth Test emerged last week.
The reluctance 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.
And now a report published in PTI suggests that the BCCI on Thursday (January 7) wrote to Cricket Australia, seeking relaxation in hard quarantine protocol of Brisbane, reminding its counterpart that the visitors have already served the strict isolation that was agreed upon at the beginning of the tour.
According to PTI, a top BCCI executive has written to CA head Earl Eddings, citing to him the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two boards on the modalities of the tour which never had any specification on two strict quarantines in separate cities.
“The discussions are still on but today BCCI has formally sent a letter seeking relaxation of hard quarantine for its players if they are to have the match in Brisbane,” a senior BCCI official told PTI.
“The MoU that was signed never mentioned about two hard quarantines. India have done one hard quarantine in Sydney (practice and back to hotel room),” he added.
When asked about BCCI’s precise demand on this matter, the official said: “The BCCI’s demand is simple. The players want to mingle with each other inside the hotel bio-bubble like they did in the IPL. They want to have their meals together inside the hotel and also have the team meetings together. That’s not a big demand.”
Apparently, CA has stated that players can mingle outside their hotel room but only those who are residing on the same floor.
“The BCCI has told CA that the relaxation of the quarantine rules should be given in writing. During India’s hard quarantine in Sydney after reaching from UAE, there used to be police personnel in each floor ensuring that there is no breach of bio-safety protocols.
“Hopefully, nothing of that sort will happen if the team travels to Brisbane. All we want is IPL style bio-bubble,” the official remarked.
The Gabba Test is scheduled to start on January 15.
(With PTI inputs)
