South Africa all-rounder Chris Morris, who was part of the Rajasthan Royals (RR) franchise in IPL 2021, has opened up about the situation after players in the bio-bubble of multiple franchises tested positive. He said the players and support staff in their bio-bubble were panicking as soon as the news came out.
“The moment we heard that, when players are testing positive, inside the bubble, then everyone starts asking questions,” Morris was quoted as saying by IOL.
BCCI had earlier postponed a couple of IPL matches but as the situation kept getting worse and more players started testing positive for COVID-19, they had to suspend the tournament on May 4.
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“The alarm bells definitely started going off for all of us. By Monday when they postponed that game (KKR vs RCB), we knew the tournament was under pressure to continue,” he added.
Morris recalled how the players started getting tensed after seeing RR director of cricket, Kumar Sangakkara drawing a finger across his throat. “I was chatting to our team doctor, whose room was across the hallway from my mine in the hotel, and Kumar (Sangakarra) came around the corner and drew his finger across his throat, and then we knew it was over. And then it was chaos!”, he said.
“The England guys especially were panicking because they needed to isolate in hotels in England first, and apparently there weren’t any rooms,” he added.
Morris has reached South Africa and he thanked Rajasthan Royals for taking care of the players. “The Royals’ management were brilliant, they had their fingers on the pulse, made everyone feel as comfortable as possible,” he said.
“I know poor Gerald (Coetzee) was panicking a bit, I mean he’s only 20 and all this is going on. I tried to keep him under my wing a bit and made sure he was ready when the 12.30 am pick-up came at the hotel. It was eerie, it was just a handful of us in that whole hotel at the time," he added.